Specters and other spooks in Malacañang

MANILA, Philippines - The Malacañang Palace is not only rich in historical tales, it is also rife with haunted and supernatural stories.

The Palace website has featured tales of ghostly sightings and sounds, from deceased presidents roaming state rooms to a mainstay mythical creature puffing away his cigar on a famous balete tree.

In time for this year's Halloween, Philstar.com revisited these stories recounted by the Palace website and chose some of the most interesting ones:

Headless security personnel?

The book Malacañan Palace: The Official Illustrated History contains a panoramic shot of the Palace’s State Entrance where a seemingly headless figure of a member of the Presidential Security Group is seen. According to malacanang.gov.ph, Wig Tysmans, the photographer, simply explained that long exposure caused the phenomenon. "The now-immortalized security personnel must have held his pose throughout the exposure, only to move his head before it ended," the Palace website article said.

Disembodied priests, balls of fire

The late justice secretary Raul Gonzalez grew up in the Palace since his father, Arturo Gonzalez, worked there as its first engineer and later as press secretary of President Diosdado Macapagal. In a series of articles published in the 1990s, he recounted stories told by their house's cleaning man, including those about disembodied friars in hooded garments and sutanas reciting the litany while walking along the Palace corridors. There were also tales about great balls of fire circling an old rubber tree on the former Palace parade field.

Mabini Hall's black lady

According to malacanang.gov.ph, Office of the President employees in Mabini Hall have spoken tales of the apparition of a woman in a black dress, looking out the window at the Pasig River. In the same office, there are also stories about moving chairs, typing sounds and children playing. In the men's restroom on the third floor, there is said to be a boy crouching in a corner with his head bent down.

The Doppleganger of the New Executive Building

The most unusual story in the New Executive Building, according to the Palace website, is that of a Doppleganger or a shapeshifter that impersonates people at night. There are also stories of a little girl following people around, a little boy moaning and crying at the passage leading to the guesthouse, and a Chinese man standing still at the corner on one of the rooms on the third floor.

Music Room: Haunted pianos, moving cellist painting

The Palace website said security personnel have spoken of pianos that start playing by themselves in the Music Room. In Nick Joaquin’s book Palacio de Malacañang: 200 Years of a Ruling House, Irene Marcos told a story about the painting of cellist that hangs in the Music Room. "On certain nights the sound of a cello playing can be heard in the room underneath. And one guard even swears he has seen the cellist in that painting turning one of the music pages," the Palace website article said.

Mr. Brown and the heritage Balete tree

The iconic, ancient Balete tree at the state entrance of the Palace is said to be the home of a kapre, known as Mr. Brown. Nick Joaquin recounted a story told by the Marcos children: "A more malevolent one is an enormous kapre who inhabits the balete tree just outside the main entrance. On dark, muggy nights, security men were sometimes startled to see their fellow guards frantically running about the grounds as though being chased by some invisible demon. The victims claimed later the gigantic kapre had wakened them, then had gone about gleefully dropping ashes from his enormous cigar on their heads."

In a interview with reporters, President Aquino said he had not encountered Mr. Brown. "But again, you hear so many stories... But I have yet to experience the same," Aquino said. In 2011, Aquino declared Mr. Brown's home a National Heritage Tree.

Lurking ghost captured on mobile phone?

The Palace website also showed a photograph taken with a mobile phone during a Palace event in 2010. In the photo, a ghostly figure "clad in prehistoric garb" is seen lurking behind a staff member of one Raffy Nantes. The Palace website sad the image "could simply be a pattern of shadows in low light conditions taken with a low-resolution phone camera."