Abandoned house spawns ghost stories

This prewar house has spooked residents with tales about ghosts and supernatural occurrences. —JUAN ESCANDOR JR.

NAGA CITY—Everything that comes to mind when the word haunted is mentioned could be found in a prewar house in the middle of an 80-hectare hacienda occupying parts of at least two villages in this city.

A balete tree grew around the structure, abandoned in the 1980s, giving it the look of a set for a horror movie.

Decaying and covered with moss in some areas, the concrete-and-brick house inspired tales from visitors of apparitions by a dark-skinned boy, a nun and other creatures.

Nicasio Bongiad, 60, caretaker of the house, claimed to have witnessed an unexplainable incident in the early 1980s when lights in the house went on although it has long had no electricity.

“The old woman is there, I was told by my father,” Bongiad said, referring to Josefa Almeda, who owned the house and had long been dead.

Living just about 100 meters from Almeda’s house, Bongiad said he saw the lights go on until early morning. He didn’t bother to check, prevented by fear.

Bongiad said he lived for about a year inside the house after the Almeda family asked him to take care of it. But he said he decided to leave because the house was too big, with two floors, a living room that could fit several cars, veranda and four bedrooms.

He said his stay in the house was unforgettable, though. He recalled hearing footsteps or the sound of things breaking in the night.

Visitors, who had gone into the house, had told tales of a dark-skinned boy running and disappearing, or of a nun in a black habit wandering inside the house.

Bongiad also recalled a time when a group of teens were partying just outside the house and were forced to seek shelter from the rain inside, where they tried to continue the merrymaking.

“The sound system would not work,” he said.

Bongiad said all he knew about the house is that it measures about 500 square meters and originally owned by an American.