Monday, May 19, 2014

The Haunting in the Philippine Military Academy




PMA (Philippine Military Academy) is a military school which trains future officers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. The school is located in Baguio, Benguet. It was actually established on February 17, 1905 inside the walls of Intramuros, Manila with its first name Officer's School of the Philippine Constabulary. Then it was relocated to Baguio on September 1, 1908.

On September 8, 1926, it was renamed to Philippine Constabulary Academy. And in the same Act which changed the name, the courses was lengthened to 3 years from 9 months.

Then on December 21, 1935, it was renamed again to its present name - Philippine Military Academy.


Well, that's enough for a short history. Let's go to the main event of the article.

The truth is I just found the story shown below in a book.

The Story



[Taken from a Book:[1]]

Ghost of PMA
By: M


When I was a plebe (first year in layman's terms), I heard much about ghosts in the academy. One timw in May, it was the foggiest night I had ever seen in PMA. It was during our study period, on or about 20:00H (8 o'clock P.M.). My female upperclassman was on duty during that time. According to her story, she had come from her barracks and was on her way to her duty area. Along the way, she met an upperclassman. Since it was foggy, she couldn't tell who he was because visibility was down to 5 feet. She saluted him. But the figure didn't seem to notice or reply to her salute. He just "walked" on. Curious, the female cadet looked back. To her surprise the person she saluted to had vanished. She was scared out of her wits so she ran as fast as she can.

Now, let me tell you about why the lights are always on in Borromeo Field. Before, the lights weren't turned on during evening in Borromeo Field. During the wee hours of the night, the cadets at the Regis and Florendo Halls were woken up by the sounds of matching and shouting at the said Borromeo Field. Regis and Florendo Halls are the closest buildings in the field. It was pitch dark and they couldn't see anything or anyone moving on the parade grounds. When they finally switched on the lights in the field it suddenly became quiet. No more sounds of marching or shouting. Every night since then they would hear marching and shouting, until the cadets made a petition to the Officials concerned regarding those ghosts. The Officials granted their petition and Borromeo Field was lit up every night. Since then there were no more marching or shouting ghosts. We assumed that those ghosts were PMA cadets who had died during training or our alumni who died in battle and returned "home" to their alma mater. No one knows, but "they" do.


Sources:
[1] True Philippine Ghost Story. Book 5. Reginald Ting Ed. 2004. PSICOM Publishing Inc. Quezon City, Philippines. ISBN 971-0372-01-7.
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_Military_Academy


Image Source:
http://www.pcoo.gov.ph/photos-mar2014/Ph13-160314_RL11.jpg

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