Sembreak scare
Ready for a new adventure this school break? A trip to the unknown perhaps?
The Smallville strip, an entertainment hub in Iloilo City, is where the cool kids and yuppies hang out, well most nights at least. Rich in culture and history, people, especially the young ones, can create their own adventures in Iloilo. One Friday we did just that and went on a different kind of night out—we visited one of Iloilo’s “haunted” houses: Casa Mariquit.
Mariquit means pretty, but locals say the 200-year-old Spanish colonial ancestral home is far from being beautiful.
Standing proud along Sta. Isabel Street in Jaro, Casa Mariquit is home to Maria Mariquit Javella Lopez, the wife of former Vice President Fernando Lopez Sr.—the couple eloped when they were teenagers. The house was built by Mariquit’s father, famous banker Ramon Javella. It’s a home of memories—apparently, even apparitions. Caretaker Morel Ferrer says the two-storey residence lodges “good spirits.”
“Any old house has spirits living in it,” says Morel, who has revived and turned Casa Mariquit into a museum in 1997. The owners abandoned the house in 1984. Morel restored the casa, with permission by the great grandson Robert Lopez Puckett. He dusted off the furniture, swept the floor, and hung each vintage memorabilia. Lined up on the walls are photos of personalities who visited the former vice president. There was Richard Nixon, as well as Chiang Kai Shek, Emperor Hirohito, and King Bhumibol Adulyadej. The casa induces a trip down memory lane. There is an old grandfather clock, a huge dial up telephone, and a Polaroid camera among others. For history buffs, it’s a major #TBT experience, but for those with extra sensory perception, it can be a spine-chilling experience.
I asked Morel about his spooky tales. He says there’s only a handful, but all of them are hair-raising. The house apparently served as a base of guerillas during World War II. Casa Mariquit was a witness to a number of Japanese soldiers being killed during the war. It has two secret underground tunnels, now closed, which provided as camp outs.
Morel says he saw a white lady on his first day. Sometimes, he could see the silhouette of a lady in Filipiniana. “They’re harmless,” he says.
“Do you want to see an example, Ma’am?” he says with a sheepish smile. Game. I don’t believe in ghosts, anyway. Morel says we should look straight into the eye of Don Ramon Javella’s old (and creepy!) black-and-white photograph. Morel says Ramon’s gaze follows you wherever you stand. He says there are many old portraits that seem to follow you wherever you go.
The human brain is so powerful it can imagine things. For someone skeptical (and with no extra powers at all), every creepy story is only a figment of our imagination. Many people have a tendency, called apophenia, to find connections between two totally unrelated events. Some interpret mundane things as something supernatural. I believe there’s a psychological explanation to seemingly paranormal activities. Google them and there you find a plethora of explanations. According to Zawn Villines in her article Psychological Explanation for Seemingly Paranormal Phenomena, published on Good Therapy website, “suggestibility can fuel myths about ghosts and haunted houses, particularly in an environment that seems creepy.”
She adds that people can be primed to see ghosts if they are told that an old house is “haunted.”
She says: “This means you might interpret a strange noise as a sign that a ghost is present. Old and abandoned houses and locations that have a scary story—such as a hotel where someone was killed, or a home where someone committed suicide—can further prime your mind to ‘see’ ghosts, even when you might otherwise explain away unusual apparitions and sounds.”
True enough, my mind was playing tricks on me. I felt a jolt every time the big grandfather clock made its eerie sound. Could that be a ghost? I felt heavy. I tried taking photographs of every nook and cranny of the elegant house in hopes of finding an extra silhouette or a blurry vision of a white lady. Alas, I didn’t find any.
To see is to believe. I haven’t seen one so I don’t believe in ghosts—yet. But it’s up to you. Renowned spirit questor Tony Perez, on his blog Tony Perez Philippines Cyberspace Book, shares psychic exercises for the members of his group Spirit Questors. He says anyone can develop his or her psychic abilities including his psychic feeling, smell, hearing, and taste. But he clears on his blog that he designed the exercises to lead anyone to “become more sensitive, more creative, more spiritual, more mentally alert, more compassionate, and more responsible” intelligent human beings.
Casa Mariquit is charming, rather than haunting, especially in the morning when you can see its glorious beauty. It evokes sweet nostalgia, of the memories of our lolos and lolas fanning themselves after siesta, when life was still simple. Casa Mariquit is an open museum—feel free to visit it anytime and see (and feel the feelings) for yourself. Hey, it’s sembreak.
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