Gretchen Barretto puts an end to urban legend about elevator incident

Muli na namang nabuhay ang isyu tungkol sa elevator incident na kinasangkutan diumano ng aktres na si Gretchen Barretto noong December 2004.

Ito ay ang pagpapalayas daw sa kanya sa loob ng elevator ng may-ari ng isang building sa Makati dahil sa hindi nito tamang asta.

Diumano, dumating si Gretchen sa RCBC Plaza building sa Makati isang araw dahil sa regular nitong schedule sa isang spa doon.

Disappearing floor

In Universidad de Manila (formerly City College of Manila), it is said that a certain floor disappears during a certain time of the day. Kind of makes you wonder: what would happen to you if ever you’re on that floor on that particular time?

Laughing ghosts

There is an account by a couple who decided to watch a comedic film in Starmall Alabang’s Cinema. The movie was so funny that they said loud laughter would erupt from the audience. But to their surprise, when the lights were turned back on post-credits, there had been only a few people watching the film with them. A pretty creepy experience, unless their collective laughter was just that loud.

Source: https://8list.ph/philippines-urban-legends/#read-more

Taho Vendors put mix cement on taho

Taho is one of the morning snacks in the Philippines, second to that of Pandesal (Salted Bread). It was made from soy beans from where soy milk and tofu came from. However, have you heard that taho vendors put cement on their product to maintain the solidity of the taho? Well, actually it is not true. 

Source: http://philurbanlegends.blogspot.com

Pasig River Monster

I've been searching for stories and/or legends about Pasig River, but I found nothing. When I open my E-mail account, I stumbled upon a message of a contributor, and luckily the story she sent was about Pasig River Monster.

As brief introduction to the Pasig river, it is a river in the Philippines that connects Laguna de Bay to Manila Bay. Stretching for 25 kilometres (15.5 mi), it is lined by Metro Manila on each side. Its major tributaries are the Marikina River and San Juan River.

The Story

Syokoy Caught in Pasig River 

By: Jomara Merano

This story was told by my mother every time I asked her to tell creepy stories whenever I and my sister feel so. I know that this is true and thus I believe in them--- these creatures.

My mother said it was around November 1981. She was then pregnant to my eldest brother that time and they lived in San Joaquin Pasig (Pasig is a city now). One of their neighbor told the other neighbor that there was someone caught from the river. Because of curiosity, my mother along with her husband and their neighbors rushed to the Municipal Hall. When they get there, my mother's husband forewarned my mother not to look because she might "paglihian" whatever she might saw. But my mother insisted. There were many people inside the municipal hall which were also curious about the creature. They forced inside the hall. Then, about 2 feet away from the jail, my mother had a glimpse from the creature. She described it as a little child about 10 years old with green skin. It's a slight of blacky, maybe because the creature was out of the water for several hours. It has full big black eyes like it wore goggles. The creature just stand there inside the jail with it's hands holding the metal bars. My mother said the creature was scared, shocked and also wondering of many people surrounding him. After that, my mother's husband insisted to go home and so they do go home.

The next day, the neighbors told my mother that the creature was gone. They also wanted to see the creature. But the police officer told them that the creature was taken by someone saying that it was their child. There are other stories that it was thrown back to the river by the order of the mayor in afraid that something might happen to them if they still keep it around. It was published in the newspapers but were also vanished quickly in the light.

I searched google to find something about it but there was none.

As she described the monster caught in the river, one thing rose in my mind - a kappa.

Kappa [left] (or sometimes called Kawataro meaning "river-boy"), in Japanese folklore, was a humanoid, resembling a little child, and with scaly and reptilian-skinned (just like that of a turtle) monster. Their skin is usually color green, and sometimes yellow. Like the monster above, this creature also live in rivers. 

While Siyokoys are mermen, sea creatures that have a human form and scaled bodies. The Siyokoy is the male counterpart of the Sirena. It is usually depicted with green scaly skin, ears resembling fish fins, having fishtail or scaled legs, and webbed feet. They could also have long, green tentacles. They drown mortals for food. They could have gill slits colored brown or green.

Although both would look like the same in imagination, what made me think it was a kappa is ". . . She described it as a little child about 10 years old with green skin." That's her description.

By the way, before I end this discussion, the author also wanted to know if someone knows the same story as hers. She would also like to know it like me.

Source: http://philurbanlegends.blogspot.com

Bongbong Marcos is just a Clone

Bongbong Marcos (real name Ferdinand "Bongbong" Romualdez Marcos, Jr.) was born on September 13, 1957. He is a Filipino politician, and now he is a senator of the Philippines in 15th Congress.

He is the only son and second child of former Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos and First Lady Imelda Marcos. The wife of Mrs. Louise Cacho Araneta, and a father to 3 sons.

The Legend

At the time of former Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos (1965–1986), rumors about their projects and doings, and even their lives were wide spread in the Philippines. Some stories about them were distorted, as for example the San Juanico Bridge Legend, where Imelda Marcos ordered children's blood be mixed on the cement as sacrifice; the Manila Film Center Legend, where 26 (or more or less than hundred) construction workers were allegedly been buried in the building and not rescued or been dug up just to meet the completion date set by Imelda Marcos; and Bongbong Marcos Legend, for which this article is about. 

According to rumors, Bongbong Marcos was already dead, and the person we can see sitting in the Senate is only a clone of 'him'. The legend spread in late 1970s and in early 1980's.

First version of legend has it that Bongbong Marcos had a fisticuff with an Indian-national classmate. In the said fight, he was accidentally been stabbed by his classmate to death. Strangely, there was no news about his body been returned in the Philippines.

Second version says, that he was killed in a road accident in Manila (other stories suggest, it happened in London) when he was a teenager.

Third version has it that Bongbong was abducted by rebel armies from Mindanao, and he was killed there.

In continuation of the legend, Imelda Marcos convinced one of his nephew, who closely resembles his son, to undergo in a plastic surgery and pretend to be Bongbong Marcos in replace.

Urban legends

By Gilda Cordero-Fernando
Philippine Daily Inquirer

 

It was believed by the folk that when a mermaid is captured (and held captive), it results in a big flood. After “Ondoy,” it is said that more people went to the Manila Aquarium than usual to check whether a mermaid was, indeed, in one of the display tanks.

Two friends who regularly go to Dumaguete, and one who lives there, also relate that when the seaside city went underwater from heavy rains four years ago, fishermen up and down the coast marched angrily to the Silliman Marine Science lab armed with oars. They were soon joined by farmers carrying pitchforks, whose farms had been inundated. They demanded the release of the mermaid that the marine biologists had purportedly been keeping in a tank (for study?).

Poor director Alcala of the marine science department had to rush to the scene in his pajamas to open the tank area! Only then would the folk believe that there was no mermaid imprisoned there. 

In Dagupan, Pangasinan, a mermaid statue with a fountain used to be in front of the old City Hall until it was torn down during a remodeling.

“Mermaids were part of our childhood and our history,” says Norma Liongoren. “The rivers criss-crossing Dagupan were said to be her tears. The sirena was the bogey we were frightened with to make us obey.”

One of the Hundred Islands of Alaminos was the location of the first “Jezebel” movie (which has had many incarnations). A mermaid statue still exists there.

Legends about mermaids are prevalent all over the Philippines. As in Angono, sightings are still reported—of a mermaid with long hair, perched on a rock, luring sailors and swimmers with her singing, then drowning them. (The dugong, says John I. Teodoro, with its hairy body, looks very much like a fat mermaid.) A science (?) education (?) building under construction had a glass dome, it was rumored, to become the tank for a sirena. 

Manila Film Center Tragedy

This is not really a legend since it actually happened. But the story about the haunting is the legend. It was told that Imelda Marcos had the grandiose notion of turning the Philippines into the Cannes of Asia by starting an international film festival. They decided the venue to be held beside the Cultural Center of the Philippines and had a date set for January 18, 1982. Despite the downhill trend of the Philippine economy, Imelda plodded along with her grandiose schemes. She also ignored some bad omens. When she first decided to launch her International Film Festival, she had built a huge building that was designed on the lines of the Parthenon.

As usual with her last-minute projects, the building was still under completion when it was nearing time for the festival, and construction was rushed, round the clock. The cement was not given time to dry properly. On November 17, 1981 shortly before 3:00 a.m., an entire floor collapsed and caved in on the floor below. According to the Marcos-controlled press, 28 workers were killed in the accident. Rumor had it than 168 had died. 

Betty Benitez (wife of Imelda’s Assistant Minister, Conrado Benitez), who was in charge of the project for the First Lady, was called to the scene. The mothers and wives of the men who died had come to claim the bodies. But the building was due to open for the festival, and Betty ordered, “Pour the cement.” The bodies of the dead workers were thus covered over so that the relatives could not claim them. The women put a curse on her.

A few months later Betty Benitez was herself killed in bizarre accident. She was a passenger in a car driven by O. D. Corpus, a former president of the University of the Philippines. They were on their way to Tagaytay at night. (It was never made clear why they were out driving in the middle of the night away from their respective spouses and families.) Betty was killed instantly when the car ran off the road on a curve and smashed into a tree. Corpus survived.

Manilans soon said the film festival building was haunted, and many refused to work there or go inside to see films. Imee Marcos called in a medium, who was said to be able to communicate with the dead, and brought him to the film festival building. The medium went into a trance. Normally, he spoke only in his native dialect. But in the trance, he suddenly spoke on in English: ‘Now there are 169,’ he intoned. ‘Betty is with us.’ 

Source: http://palaisip.blogspot.com