Mandaluyong students ‘possessed by spirits’

A 7th grade student of Isaac Lopez School in Bgy. Vergara in Mandaluyong City is prayed over by teachers and classmates after she was reported to be possessed by evil spirits during class, where she was among a dozen more students who suddenly acted out in an uncontrolled manner, crying and cursing, forcing the school to suspend classes for the rest of the day. MARIANNE BERMUDEZ/INQUIRER

MANILA, Philippines—Fear gripped a school in Mandaluyong City early Thursday after several students were allegedly possessed by spirits, a village official said.

Village Chairman Lilly dela Cruz said the mass hysteria occurred around 9 a.m. inside the Isaac Lopez Integrated School, involving about 20 second year high school students.

“When I went to the school, there were students in a room who were agitated,” dela Cruz said, noting that four people were needed just to restrain one student.

She said Red Cross members and police authorities arrived at the area, as well as a lay minister and a pastor.

But of the 20 students—mostly girls—dela Cruz said she found the case of three students “alarming.”

“They appeared like they were no longer breathing and the pupil of their eyes could no longer be seen. The color of their lips had turned violet,” she said.

But the others, she said, looked “overacting.”

Dela Cruz suggested that classes be suspended because panic-stricken parents outside the school were wrecking the school gates as they tried to get in to pick up their children.

The “possessed” students were calmed down past 11 a.m. Some were taken to the church by their parents, while others were brought home.

Dela Cruz said the same incident took place at a house in their village some four years ago, but it was only the first time, since she assumed office, that the victims of “spirit possession” were students.

The village chief said she has yet to determine how the incident started.