MANILA, Philippines – I once asked a friend why most people feared ghosts more than werewolves, aswang, duendes, aliens, and monsters.

“Well,” he answered. “It’s because they’re supposed to be dead.”

The UP College of Music at the Abelardo Hall has a curfew. At 8 in the evening, the bell will ring and all who are still inside must exit the building before the guard locks it down.

This was not always so. Years ago, people could stay in as long as they wanted.

You see, we Music majors are addicted to practice. We’d pound away on our instruments until 3 in the morning if we could. So understandably, many of us were disgruntled when the 8 p.m. rule was first imposed.

Several weeks ago, we were talking to one of our professors, also a Music alumna, expressing envy at how, during her time, she could stay in the college and practice to her heart’s content way into the night.

“You’re right, we didn’t have an official curfew then,” she replied. “Instead, we had what we called a natural curfew. Once you start to hear someone playing, singing, or dancing along to your solitary music … Ay [Oh]! Umuwi ka na[It’s time to go home]!”

And even until now, many janitors claim that sometimes they hear passionate piano playing in one of the classrooms, but when they go to check, they find no one there.

They also say that in the gamelan room, the biggest gong in the ensemble (gong ageng) vibrates by itself at 12 midnight. And it must be true because every gamelan set is believed to have its own identity and to be inhabited by spirits whom you must not offend –which is why you must treat the instruments with care and never step over them, or you will never have children of your own.

Several piano professors also claim that there’s a little girl who wanders around the second floor of the annex building at night, especially if you’re the only one left practicing in the premises.

Jeepney stories

It was late at night when a man waved his hand at the driver and got on the jeep. The driver wondered why the man chose to stand on the edge and cling on to the rails, and asked him why he wouldn’t take a seat. Just as the man was about to answer that the vehicle was full of passengers, he realized it was actually empty.

Another tale was that of a girl who got on the jeepney by herself. All of a sudden, the driver veered away from the regular route into unknown territory. Driving through dark and unpopulated areas, he kept glancing cautiously at the girl over his shoulder.

The girl started to fear for her life and womanly dignity (what if he planned to rape her?) and requested that she be dropped off at her dorm. In time the jeepney resumed its regular route and she was dropped off in front of her building.

But before taking off, the driver said, “Miss, as soon as you get inside, take off your clothes and burn them. Because when I saw your reflection in the rear view mirror, you were headless.” He also said that was the reason he took several unusual turns – because he feared that the girl’s untimely demise lay in the jeepney’s regular course.

Vinzons Hall

At Vinzons Hall, it was the end of the semester, and a guy was waiting for his friend to meet him. Since the first floor was quite busy and crowded with students celebrating the semestral break, he went up to the second floor, which was empty of people and quite peaceful, and started to read a book – a pleasure he had been deprived of during finals week.

All of a sudden, he heard a woman eerily gasp for breath from the men’s comfort room. A few minutes later his friend walked out, and he asked him if he had heard anything. His friend said no, and laughed at him because he seemed to be imagining things.

Before they left, the guy decided to relieve himself in one of the cubicles. After some time he felt someone patting and smoothing his head. He looked up and saw a girl hanging from her neck, her complexion gray from the lack of oxygen, and her eyes almost bulging out of their sockets. And grazing his head were the soles of her feet! He hurriedly ran out with his zipper still undone, and he never used that comfort room again.

Dorm stories

At the Sampaguita dorm, a student was brushing her teeth when a woman suddenly appeared in the mirror behind her. In fright, she started to pray the rosary, and the lady raspily prayed it along with her.

Another student was washing her face, and when she looked in the mirror with her face still covered in soap suds, she saw her reflection smiling back at her. She hurriedly ran out and rinsed her face with mineral water.

Some dormers also claimed that while taking a shower, a black presence with red eyes peeped at them.

Benitez Hall

Of all the colleges rumored to be haunted at UP, the College of Education was the most notorious and controversial, being the oldest building on campus.

A friend studied elementary and high school at the UP Integrated School, from which she and her friends had a full view of the College of Education. She told the story of a girl who committed suicide on the fourth floor. And on some nights they could see her jumping from the topmost floor, and then vanishing before she hit the ground.

A new professor, who requested not to be named, recounted how she was once having class when she noticed that two of her students at the back were not listening. Instead, they were whispering to each other and kept glancing towards the door. Irritated, she approached them after class and asked why they weren’t listening to the discussion. And they answered that they saw a man in white watching her as he peeped through the door.

Asking around, they were advised to seek information from the librarians, who then instructed them to look at the board of past and present deans.

“There! That’s him!” said the students, pointing to the picture of Dean Benitez – the man after whom the College of Education was named.

The librarians then explained that while Dean Benitez was still alive, he would walk around and observe the new professors in their classes.

The next story I’m going to share has reached urban legend status. It has been told time and time again around UP, and now has several variations.

It was very late at night and raining too hard. A professor was the only one left at the College of Education, and she couldn’t go home due to the heavy rains. She approached the guard and asked if she could stay in the building for some time, at least until the rain stopped. He generously obliged, but on several conditions.

He brought her to one of the rooms and instructed her to shut and lock the door. She was to stay inside the whole time until he came back to get her. Under no circumstances was she permitted to open the door unless she heard him knock. The professor agreed and the guard left her and returned to his post.

After some time, the professor heard footsteps outside the room. Someone was walking along the corridor. Approaching the door, she peeked through the keyhole. The footsteps had stopped and all she could see was the color red. Just red and nothing else. She stood back up, extremely curious at what she just saw. But heeding the guard’s instructions, she chose not to open the door.

A few hours later, the security guard returned and knocked for her. She opened it and he said it was okay for her to come out now. She thanked him for his kindness, but couldn’t keep herself from asking. Whose were those footsteps, and why was the view from the keyhole nothing but red?

“Ah,” the guard responded knowingly. Trying to soothe her, he explained that there really was a ghost that would walk along the corridor at a certain hour every night. That was why he instructed her to stay inside the room and keep the door locked at all times. And that ghost, he continued, had big red eyes.

UP Infant Center

Students taking Family Life and Child Development (FLCD) have a subject called Home Management. While taking it up, they are required to live in the Infant Center, which is reportedly haunted. Residents would wake up to find all the cupboards in the kitchen open. A guy also went to bed without a blanket, and when he woke up, he was snuggled up under one.

So one night, my friend, her classmates, and their professor were having a quiet dinner, when all of a sudden they heard the innocent sound of a baby’s laughter.

Their eyes grew wide and they held their breath. After a moment of silence, their professor cautiously admitted, “Cellphone ko ‘yon. Paabot nga.”

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