28 high school students “stalked by spirits”

CEBU, Philippines - Twenty-eight female high school students of the Don Vicente Rama Memorial High School were taken to the Basak Pardo Barangay Hall for a medical checkup yesterday after showing symptoms of mass hysteria.

The students, mostly in their fourth year, allegedly kept on crying and shouting after seeing the vision of a man with red eyes, a woman and a child. 

Most of them joined a Girl Scout camping activity in Camp Marina, Barangay Kalunasan, last Friday.

One of the students aged 15 said they first saw the red-eyed man after playing noisily at the camping site which was surrounded by many trees.

The man, and the two others, she further said, reportedly followed them when they got back to school last Monday, causing them to panic.

Another student kept on crying yesterday saying she sees the three of them in her mind whenever she closes her eyes.

The student’s grandmother, 66, said she was surprised by her granddaughter’s actions as she looked normal before going to school yesterday.

Tumulak said the students might be suffering from a minor hallucination due to the stress in last Sunday’s activity.

“Maybe they were stressed because dugay sila natulog pag-jamboree and early sila nangmata,” the barangay captain said.

Together with the medical teams of the barangay, Tumulak said they checked the vital signs and pulse rate of the affected students and they appeared normal.  The affected students will undergo a psychological debriefing by the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

Basak Pardo parish priest Fr. Henry Visitacion also checked the students to see if they were possessed but said the girls were normal, Tumulak reported.  —/BRP (FREEMAN)