Hauntings in the Campus

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1996 was the year I entered the De La Salle University Manila campus as a "froshie".  Just like every freshman in a university campus, I was nervous, wary, and just generally lost.  But, thanks to the help of upperclassmen friends on the campus, I was able to find my way around and get used to the ins-and-outs during the first month.  Although, I wasn't sure why one of the info they shared with me was about hauntings in certain areas of the school.  But now, I realize that it's because they are inevitable.

When I was in 3rd year high school, a friend who had also attended La Salle told me this story:

There was this night class in the La Salle building and the professor was late.  The students, as usual, were loud and noisy and just all over the place.  So, they didn't notice the poker-faced girl who entered the classroom, went straight towards the blackboard, and then walked through it.  The only student that noticed her was sitting up front.  After she disappeared through the wall, the student screamed "Multo!!!" and ran out of the room.  His classmates promptly stormed out also.

I told this tale to a bunch of newfound friends (mostly upperclassmen) in a literary organization in La Salle.  They said they'd heard the story, too, and some of them believe it to be true, particularly because they themselves have experienced hauntings while on campus.

I graduated from La Salle in 1999.  During my 3 years roaming its halls and walkways, I have personally experienced hauntings.  Like in most ghost stories, it was only afterwards that I realized what had just happened.

• There used to be a darkroom in the 2nd floor of Miguel bldg. where us photo majors practically lived.  By the Exit door, a ghost that each of us had sighted, but not at the same time (which was what made us sure he's real), forever stands guard.  He's in a plain white shirt and jeans.  Sometimes he'd come close to us, especially those who are working alone.  Two or three of us have been haunted that way, so we decided to enter that lab always with at least one other friend and we'd work side-by-side.  I once made the mistake of going to the other side of the room alone because I had to use another projector, completely forgetting about the darkroom ghost.  I remembered only when the drawer beside me opened slightly by itself.  Once, a friend decided to work there alone on a Saturday morning because it was finals week and she wanted to get things done before the deadlines came up.  She brought her discman and earphones, went inside the darkroom and declared aloud, "Pakiusap, huwag mo akong istorbohin. Busy ako."
  
  We told one of our professors about  the ghost.  He said it's not the first time he had heard about it.  In fact, they believe the haunting started only a few years back after a former student of theirs had died.  This student and his friends were shooting a video documentary somewhere out of town.  On the drive home, their car crashed (can't remember if it was their driver's fault or another vehicle hit them).  Of them, only he was conscious enough to get help for his friends, who are all alive today.  Only he had died from the wounds he sustained.  Our professor told us that the darkroom ghost started appearing a few months after the accident.  They had already had the room blessed by a priest a couple of times but, obviously, he's still there.


• We had heard that the hallway in the 3rd floor of the SJ building becomes longer when the clock strikes 6 P.M. and that the phenomenon lasts for about 15 minutes.  One time, some friends and I took on a stupid dare to walk through that haunted hallway at exactly 6 P.M.  We entered it a few minutes after 6 and walked in relative silence till we reached the midpoint.  Someone muttered, "Di naman totoo eh."  We responded in an eruption of laughter and guffaws, which continued for the next 5 minutes.  After a while, we fell silent again, realizing something odd.  And then someone said what was on everyone's mind: "Parang kanina pa tayo nandito..."  That got us running hysterically down the hall towards the other end.


• When you walk down the stairway from the 3rd to the 2nd floor of Miguel bldg., especially in the late afternoon, you might notice a few extra shadows with human-like outlines that are being cast by no one.  One might even be walking beside you.  The same happens, but in the early evening, along the walkway between the SJ building and the Library.


• I haven't been back on the DLSU campus since 2000 so I don't know which buildings are still there.  But there is/was a small auditorium behind the SJ building.  My organization did a series of theatrical performances there.  One afternoon while doing a technical rehearsal there, I was standing alone on the darkened stage while a friend, who was directing the show, was in the technical booth.  We were communicating continuously via walkie-talkies, so when I asked a question and he didn't respond for a minute or so, I began wondering what was wrong with our gadgets.  I saw his silhouette in the booth and waved to him, gesturing to my walkie-talkie, but that still didn't get me a response.  Immediately after that, my friend walked up to me from one of the cul-de-sacs on the stage, asking me about the light that I said was malfunctioning.  Caught by surprise, I didn't know what to say except, "Akala ko nasa booth ka?  Saan ka nanggaling?"  His reply, "Kanina pa ako pumunta rito noh, hinahanap ko yung switch ng ilaw na sinasabi mo."  I told him about the silhouette I saw in the booth.  "Imposible", he said, "ni-lock ko yung pinto nun.  Baka may pumasok na maintenance?"  Together we walked towards the booth and it was indeed locked.  We went outside to find the maintenance guy.  We found him and asked if he was inside the booth.  He said he had just arrived on the premises.  Needless to say, tech. rehearsal was cut short because of that. 


• A bunch of us stayed overnight on the campus several times during the months we took up the video production course.  We had practically shut ourselves in the editing room (2nd floor, Miguel bldg.) from late night till morning, going out only to piss (building doors were padlocked around 11 P.M. so we had to buy food and drinks before the lockdown, which lasted till around 6 A.M.).  The editing room had two doors, one leading to the TV studio and the other was the Exit door (it had a small vertical glass window in its upper central part) to the hallway outside, which was connected to the bridge that led to the Gokongwei building.  Around 5 A.M. on one such time, a classmate was working at the editing station nearest the Exit door when she suddenly looked up and saw a small girl peering through the window at us.  She immediately stood up and got out the door to find out who that child was and why she's there at that hour in the morning.  After a few minutes, she quickly reentered the room with a terrified look on her face.  We asked what had happened, then she told us about the girl she saw in the window.  "Naka-padlock yung gate papuntang Gokongwei, pati yung mga pinto ng Miguel.  Tinanong ko si Manong (the lab keeper who stayed overnight with us but slept in their quarters behind the supply room in the same floor), kasi baka dinala pala nya yung anak nya. Sabi nya mag-isa lang sya."

I've also heard some of the ghost stories from other universities like Ateneo, UP, UPLB, and UST.  Seems it's really part of college life and lore -- ghosts are everywhere anyway.  Although definitely unpleasant, these experiences did add an extra zing to my college memories.