I never really believed in ghosts until I had my firsthand experience.
It was the year 2001 when I was employed as call center agent in a US-based company in Subic, Zambales. All the agents were girls and we stayed by two’s in hotel suites in one of the pre-war buildings that were renovated into hotels. We didn’t have prior knowledge about the history of the hotel since we all hailed from other cities.
My suite, C148, had 2 double beds, a ceiling fan, carpeted floors, a T & B and huge draperies that touched the floor. The hotel was a two-storey elongated structure. The entrance led to a long carpeted hallway, with rooms on either side. But before reaching the rooms, the head of the hallway had a wall-to-wall glass panel window to the right, overlooking the endless greenery in the garden bordering the hotel. To the left was a brown door that concealed a cabinet where blankets and bed sheets were neatly stored.
Always engrossed in our chatter, I never really gave much thought as to why every time we passed that brown cabinet, we felt a draft. There were neither windows nor air-conditioning facility in the hallway but there was a chill about it. The temperature noticeably dropped in that section of the hallway. Then five steps away, the temperature jacked up, which should have been expected all throughout the broad extent of the windowless hallway.
On my first night there in November 2001 at around 10 pm, I came out the hallway to refill my jug. We could request water delivered to our rooms but I couldn’t hold my thirst. There was a water dispenser sitting at the end of the hallway. The night air felt sticky. Subic sits right by the sea, so it’s really a hot place. But on that warm night, after filling up three fourths of my jug, I suddenly felt scared. The feeling crept up my spine. I felt a cold sensation surround me. It was hair-raising because I was sure that someone I couldn’t see was with me. I didn’t bother filling up my jug anymore and briskly walked back to my room. I never talked about that incident. It didn’t bother me anyway.
After some days, we found out from an old timer, a cab driver for the Freeport, that the hotel building where we were staying in used to be the headquarters of American soldiers during the Second World War. He said wounded American soldiers died there too. He even told us about shuttle bus drivers who would pick up a lady in a white dress near the chapel late at night. When the drivers would glance at their rear view mirror, she wasn’t there anymore.
The weeks passed uneventfully and we have almost forgotten about it until the holidays arrived. We were all packed and seated in the van that would take us back home. Home was 7 hours away. We went on our way and as the night wore on, our driver, a resident of the locality, began telling us ghost experiences he knew about in the hotel area where we were staying. We all got really scared and suddenly everyone started sharing their ghostly experience in the hotel building. So I wasn’t the only one. Almost everyone had a story to tell, though we all brushed it aside as some unusual experience. It was only then that we found out that we were all being haunted without giving much thought about it.
In one of the girls’ rooms, a man’s voice would wake them up in the wee hours of the morning. The rough sounding voice would shout at their ears as if they were soldiers being woken up by their officer. One of the girls would turn the TV volume up at dawn to drown out the eerie voice. They said they could hear the sound of rubber boots walking on the carpeted floor in their room. In another room, they would hear disturbing knocks at their door at night. No one would be there when they answered the door. They just dismissed it as a prank from the other girls.
Once in a while, we would have swimming pool parties sponsored by our office. Once during one of those pool parties, one of the girls retired early. She was alone in their room taking a bath when she thought her roommate called her 3 times. She kept telling her that she was almost done. When she came out, she was surprised to find herself alone in the room. Her roommate was still at the pool. She was talking to someone else!
One girl related that one night when she was alone in the room taking a bath, the toilet bowl flushed by itself! Just imagine how stiff that flush handle is, that it couldn’t possibly have flushed itself. That would mean that the ghost was in the bathroom with her! They were just separated by the rolling glass door of the bathtub. Screaming, she ran out the hallway with only a bath towel draped around her waist.
In the hallway where I first had my experience, one of the girls said she felt a cold breeze when she walked in front of the empty small stock room, like I always did. She wondered where the breeze came from. The hair on her spine stood up.
Once, when I came out of our building to go to another building at night, I suddenly felt the urge to run. My hair stood up! I just walked a little faster and pretended that I didn’t care because I did not want to acknowledge the feeling that someone was following me although I was alone.
One of my co-employees, an African-American Filipino and a woman of age, had a third eye. She was a psychic of some sort. When everyone was going back to their rooms during lunch break, she announced that a black figure was standing at some corner of the hotel. There was a pandemonium. Everyone started screaming and ran downstairs.
Another one told of a woman’s voice they heard echoing the end of the Christmas song they were rehearsing for our Christmas program. The hall wherein they were polishing their songs, was housed in another pre-war building, just adjacent our hotel suite. It was the song leader who screamed first before everyone followed suit and ran out the building. She had her microphone OFF and was definitely startled to hear the last phrase of the song ring out of the speakers.
Being call center agents meant working in the wee hours of the morning. Our shift began at 4 am. We had to be up by 3 am or earlier. The workplace was another 6-minute walk to another building. Walking in the dark, we always went in groups. But one time, one of the girls had to return to her suite to collect her mobile phone. She came back to the calling center all white and pale and running after her breath. She started running in the dark when she felt someone was following her like I did. But she was alone.
My final encounter with the 3rd kind occurred on my last day at the suite. I had just handed over my resignation letter and went back to the suite to pack up my stuff. All the girls were at work, so that left me completely alone in the entire hotel building. I wasn’t afraid at all, since my mind was preoccupied. Haunting was the least on my mind. As I stepped out the door, I placed down my suitcase on the hallway and preceded back into the room to double check my bedside drawers if I had indeed emptied it. As I headed for the drawers, immediately, the door slammed shut! It did not just close, it locked itself! Something outside just locked me inside my room! One has to pull the door hard enough to lock it. Chills ran down my spine. Our shutters have forever remained closed since we had a ceiling fan, which I had just turned OFF. There was no wind coming from the windows or even from the hallway which was windowless. I figured the ghost didn’t want me to leave. Gathering all the courage that was left of me, I stepped out the hallway, walked briskly toward the entrance with my suitcase in hand. I cannot deny that a cold sensation was walking with me all throughout the hallway! It was the scariest. My only consolation was that I couldn’t see who or what was walking with me. If I did, maybe I had fainted. The temperature at the hallway only got warm after I reached the glass window. I felt great relief coming out of the building. I guess, it knew that I was leaving and never coming back and wanted to keep me there. It was just after 12 noon.
From what I had experienced, I think it or they are not violent spirits but according to the psychic woman, the spirits that roam the second floor, were they were staying, are quite violent. There was one room where upon entering, a heavy feeling would set in. It was very uncomfortable. And a smell would greet you, no matter how well kept and well made it was.
That hotel chain in that part of Subic has been sold by the owners. They have moved on but the ghosts still lurk the hallways. I wonder what’s keeping them from moving on. But I think I know why one by one the girls resigned….
People believe that before a person died, there were signs. They would make “bilin” or would suddenly become very “maasikaso”. My next story happened when my Grandpa died in 1995. He didn’t spell his last wishes or spend time with us since he was already in his deathbed; he did it while he was dying! I will be posting it next week.
Want to know what ghosts must linger the hallways and rooms of those Hotels in Subic? Here’s Subic Bay's Wartime History
In the 17th Century, Spanish naval forces began to use Subic Bay to safeguard their holdings in the Philippines. The Spanish held the place for over a century until the Spanish fleet's defeat at Manila Bay in 1898. As soon as the Americans took possession of Subic Bay, they found the place strategically important for food and fuel for the fleet. The sudden bombing of Pearl Harbor and the invasion of the Philippines by the Japanese brought a swift end to the good times in Olongapo. In the latter part of 1942, the Japanese Imperial forces occupied Olongapo. Finally, on the morning of January 29, 1945, the people of Olongapo awoke to find hundreds of American planes in the sky. Hours later, Subic Bay filled with American vessels, and the American troops landed without resistance. As soon as the enemy left, the Americans recognized the plight of the people of Olongapo and began to help them in all posssible ways. Employment boomed and by 1946, there were 10,000 Filipinos employed in the various Naval activities. Stores were reopened, roads rebuilt and housing projects initiated and the city and Naval Base were on the way to becoming the economic and military force it continued to be through the 1990's.
--Taken from the "Souvenir Handbook of Olongapo in Subic Bay" (1956) by Mariano L. Bada, PNS, BSE, former 1st Lieutenant, Olongapo Police and Leonardo DelRosario, published by DelRosario Press, Olongapo
Who knows how many of them died in Subic?
It was the year 2001 when I was employed as call center agent in a US-based company in Subic, Zambales. All the agents were girls and we stayed by two’s in hotel suites in one of the pre-war buildings that were renovated into hotels. We didn’t have prior knowledge about the history of the hotel since we all hailed from other cities.
My suite, C148, had 2 double beds, a ceiling fan, carpeted floors, a T & B and huge draperies that touched the floor. The hotel was a two-storey elongated structure. The entrance led to a long carpeted hallway, with rooms on either side. But before reaching the rooms, the head of the hallway had a wall-to-wall glass panel window to the right, overlooking the endless greenery in the garden bordering the hotel. To the left was a brown door that concealed a cabinet where blankets and bed sheets were neatly stored.
Always engrossed in our chatter, I never really gave much thought as to why every time we passed that brown cabinet, we felt a draft. There were neither windows nor air-conditioning facility in the hallway but there was a chill about it. The temperature noticeably dropped in that section of the hallway. Then five steps away, the temperature jacked up, which should have been expected all throughout the broad extent of the windowless hallway.
On my first night there in November 2001 at around 10 pm, I came out the hallway to refill my jug. We could request water delivered to our rooms but I couldn’t hold my thirst. There was a water dispenser sitting at the end of the hallway. The night air felt sticky. Subic sits right by the sea, so it’s really a hot place. But on that warm night, after filling up three fourths of my jug, I suddenly felt scared. The feeling crept up my spine. I felt a cold sensation surround me. It was hair-raising because I was sure that someone I couldn’t see was with me. I didn’t bother filling up my jug anymore and briskly walked back to my room. I never talked about that incident. It didn’t bother me anyway.
After some days, we found out from an old timer, a cab driver for the Freeport, that the hotel building where we were staying in used to be the headquarters of American soldiers during the Second World War. He said wounded American soldiers died there too. He even told us about shuttle bus drivers who would pick up a lady in a white dress near the chapel late at night. When the drivers would glance at their rear view mirror, she wasn’t there anymore.
The weeks passed uneventfully and we have almost forgotten about it until the holidays arrived. We were all packed and seated in the van that would take us back home. Home was 7 hours away. We went on our way and as the night wore on, our driver, a resident of the locality, began telling us ghost experiences he knew about in the hotel area where we were staying. We all got really scared and suddenly everyone started sharing their ghostly experience in the hotel building. So I wasn’t the only one. Almost everyone had a story to tell, though we all brushed it aside as some unusual experience. It was only then that we found out that we were all being haunted without giving much thought about it.
In one of the girls’ rooms, a man’s voice would wake them up in the wee hours of the morning. The rough sounding voice would shout at their ears as if they were soldiers being woken up by their officer. One of the girls would turn the TV volume up at dawn to drown out the eerie voice. They said they could hear the sound of rubber boots walking on the carpeted floor in their room. In another room, they would hear disturbing knocks at their door at night. No one would be there when they answered the door. They just dismissed it as a prank from the other girls.
Once in a while, we would have swimming pool parties sponsored by our office. Once during one of those pool parties, one of the girls retired early. She was alone in their room taking a bath when she thought her roommate called her 3 times. She kept telling her that she was almost done. When she came out, she was surprised to find herself alone in the room. Her roommate was still at the pool. She was talking to someone else!
One girl related that one night when she was alone in the room taking a bath, the toilet bowl flushed by itself! Just imagine how stiff that flush handle is, that it couldn’t possibly have flushed itself. That would mean that the ghost was in the bathroom with her! They were just separated by the rolling glass door of the bathtub. Screaming, she ran out the hallway with only a bath towel draped around her waist.
In the hallway where I first had my experience, one of the girls said she felt a cold breeze when she walked in front of the empty small stock room, like I always did. She wondered where the breeze came from. The hair on her spine stood up.
Once, when I came out of our building to go to another building at night, I suddenly felt the urge to run. My hair stood up! I just walked a little faster and pretended that I didn’t care because I did not want to acknowledge the feeling that someone was following me although I was alone.
One of my co-employees, an African-American Filipino and a woman of age, had a third eye. She was a psychic of some sort. When everyone was going back to their rooms during lunch break, she announced that a black figure was standing at some corner of the hotel. There was a pandemonium. Everyone started screaming and ran downstairs.
Another one told of a woman’s voice they heard echoing the end of the Christmas song they were rehearsing for our Christmas program. The hall wherein they were polishing their songs, was housed in another pre-war building, just adjacent our hotel suite. It was the song leader who screamed first before everyone followed suit and ran out the building. She had her microphone OFF and was definitely startled to hear the last phrase of the song ring out of the speakers.
Being call center agents meant working in the wee hours of the morning. Our shift began at 4 am. We had to be up by 3 am or earlier. The workplace was another 6-minute walk to another building. Walking in the dark, we always went in groups. But one time, one of the girls had to return to her suite to collect her mobile phone. She came back to the calling center all white and pale and running after her breath. She started running in the dark when she felt someone was following her like I did. But she was alone.
My final encounter with the 3rd kind occurred on my last day at the suite. I had just handed over my resignation letter and went back to the suite to pack up my stuff. All the girls were at work, so that left me completely alone in the entire hotel building. I wasn’t afraid at all, since my mind was preoccupied. Haunting was the least on my mind. As I stepped out the door, I placed down my suitcase on the hallway and preceded back into the room to double check my bedside drawers if I had indeed emptied it. As I headed for the drawers, immediately, the door slammed shut! It did not just close, it locked itself! Something outside just locked me inside my room! One has to pull the door hard enough to lock it. Chills ran down my spine. Our shutters have forever remained closed since we had a ceiling fan, which I had just turned OFF. There was no wind coming from the windows or even from the hallway which was windowless. I figured the ghost didn’t want me to leave. Gathering all the courage that was left of me, I stepped out the hallway, walked briskly toward the entrance with my suitcase in hand. I cannot deny that a cold sensation was walking with me all throughout the hallway! It was the scariest. My only consolation was that I couldn’t see who or what was walking with me. If I did, maybe I had fainted. The temperature at the hallway only got warm after I reached the glass window. I felt great relief coming out of the building. I guess, it knew that I was leaving and never coming back and wanted to keep me there. It was just after 12 noon.
From what I had experienced, I think it or they are not violent spirits but according to the psychic woman, the spirits that roam the second floor, were they were staying, are quite violent. There was one room where upon entering, a heavy feeling would set in. It was very uncomfortable. And a smell would greet you, no matter how well kept and well made it was.
That hotel chain in that part of Subic has been sold by the owners. They have moved on but the ghosts still lurk the hallways. I wonder what’s keeping them from moving on. But I think I know why one by one the girls resigned….
People believe that before a person died, there were signs. They would make “bilin” or would suddenly become very “maasikaso”. My next story happened when my Grandpa died in 1995. He didn’t spell his last wishes or spend time with us since he was already in his deathbed; he did it while he was dying! I will be posting it next week.
Want to know what ghosts must linger the hallways and rooms of those Hotels in Subic? Here’s Subic Bay's Wartime History
In the 17th Century, Spanish naval forces began to use Subic Bay to safeguard their holdings in the Philippines. The Spanish held the place for over a century until the Spanish fleet's defeat at Manila Bay in 1898. As soon as the Americans took possession of Subic Bay, they found the place strategically important for food and fuel for the fleet. The sudden bombing of Pearl Harbor and the invasion of the Philippines by the Japanese brought a swift end to the good times in Olongapo. In the latter part of 1942, the Japanese Imperial forces occupied Olongapo. Finally, on the morning of January 29, 1945, the people of Olongapo awoke to find hundreds of American planes in the sky. Hours later, Subic Bay filled with American vessels, and the American troops landed without resistance. As soon as the enemy left, the Americans recognized the plight of the people of Olongapo and began to help them in all posssible ways. Employment boomed and by 1946, there were 10,000 Filipinos employed in the various Naval activities. Stores were reopened, roads rebuilt and housing projects initiated and the city and Naval Base were on the way to becoming the economic and military force it continued to be through the 1990's.
--Taken from the "Souvenir Handbook of Olongapo in Subic Bay" (1956) by Mariano L. Bada, PNS, BSE, former 1st Lieutenant, Olongapo Police and Leonardo DelRosario, published by DelRosario Press, Olongapo
Who knows how many of them died in Subic?
Interesting story, Thanks for sharing. There is also a ghost stories from these pampanga hotels and baguio hotels.
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