Historical Treat: Revisiting Manila’s oldest landmarks and the ghosts of their past

“Do people know how many public places in Manila used to be cemeteries? Why did a psychic see ‘blood and fire’ in Arroceros? Everybody knows that Rizal was executed in Bagumbayan, but did they know that hundreds of people were executed there as well?” opens Benjamin Canapi, head of guided tour group WanderManila. One Night in Manila, another virtual Halloween tour arranged by the group, selected places and spaces in Manila that crawl with dark stories and secrets. This edition sets itself apart from the first two, extending the experience beyond the walls of Intramuros. 

READ ABOUT LAST YEAR’S TOUR: LOOK: Historical landmarks featured at the Intramuros virtual Halloween tour

One Night in Manila will be presented virtually, further educating the public on historical landmarks by digging up certain skeletons that were buried through time. “Filipinos gravitate towards anything horror in general,” Canapi tells BluPrint. The idea of giving audiences a good scare while spinning historical facts has been the guiding map in navigating through each edition; One Night in Manila will continue this by walking through Arroceros Forest Park and Escolta, exploring the buildings of the University of Santo Tomas and Manila City Hall, and looking at the parks Paco and Luneta at an entirely new perspective. 

Historical Wins and Horror Whispers

The historical locations selected have a fair share of stories and reputations attached to them. Manila City Hall’s architecture, originally constructed in 1941 under the design guidance of Architect Antonio Toledo, is the subject of both its historical significance and horrifying fact. The hexagonal clock tower has served as a symbol not only of the city hall, but of Manila City in its entirety. It has stood as a beacon, even reflecting Manila’s progress given the number of reconstructions and refurbishing performed since the second World War. While many find it amusing to look up and adore the shape of the tower, a number have seemed to notice how the city hall resembles the shape of a giant coffin when viewed from above. One Night in Manila posted this as one of the episode’s teasers, saying that “while there was nothing sinister about the design nor the intent behind the structure,” the horror points towards the fact that Manila was once razed to the ground during World War II and thousands of people died then. It is possible that “a Manila we will never know died, and Manila City Hall is where it lies in rest.” 

Being the oldest university in Asia, the University of Santo Tomas holds many pages in history. From a colegio elevated as a university to being issued a royal order to supervise schools in the Philippines, the institution has stood for 410 years. The current site of the university in Sampaloc has paid witness to all historical events beginning 1927, when UST’s administration decided to transfer from Intramuros due to the flock of enrollees.

During the second world war in 1942 to 1945, the Japanese Occupation Forces converted the campus into an internment camp. UST’s history mentions that “around 2,500 allied civilians were detained” and its buildings such as the Main Building, the Gymnasium, and the Domestic Arts building were used as living quarters.

With this background, the institution is not spared from passed down stories such as headless nuns and priests walking at night, soldiers roaming around, a ghost in the women’s restroom that aims to make contact by tapping foreheads, and a singing spirit in the fifth floor of the Music Building.   

Trick or Treat? 

Although tagged as a recreational park, Paco Park in Manila has never really become just a place for people to visit. In history, the park was formerly a municipal cemetery built to originally be the final resting place of aristocrats living inside and outside Intramuros. Remains of Dr. Jose Rizal and GomBurZa are also said to once have laid here. With the park being opened to the public in 1822 due to the alarming number of victims of the Cholera plague, stories suggest that hundreds of Cholera victims remain in the same grounds up to this day.

In 2015, a visual recording that exposes the ghost of a young boy running from the gates of Osario went viral. Hearsays have also mentioned apparitions of a ghost bride given the park’s prominent wedding venue, St. Pancratius Chapel. Could it be that this circular park has more mystery wrapped around it than most know? 

The streets of Arroceros and Escolta are testaments to the beauty of Old Manila, with Arroceros Forest Park Escolta being a surviving green lung in the city and the Metropolitan Theater found at the corner of the calle (now called Antonio Villegas street). Escolta, on the other hand, mimics the experience of walking through Parisian buildings, reminiscent of the first skyscraper buildings in the Philippines. Given Manila’s fair share of stories about death, struggle, and violence, it can be inferred that these two old streets have witnessed actual events which effects may still be haunting and lurking today. 

A tragedy took place in the surroundings of Arroceros Forest Park during the historical Parian event, when the Spaniards massacred around 20,000 Chinese individuals. Stories and horrifying beliefs about the various structures within the two streets are prevalent even up to this day. There are legends about performing ghosts in the Met who usually rehearse in one of the empty halls of the second floor and about a white lady sighted at the staircase of the First United Building in Escolta. Do the random reports of sightings and disturbing noises in these two streets actually mean more than these legends? What is there to learn more about the city we know now? 

One Night in Manila will be online on October 30 at 9:00 PM via WanderManila’s Facebook page. Succeeding Halloween episodes will explore more spaces within the metro and are anticipated to run live. 

Photos by Ed Simon