Haunting History of : The Laperal White House,Baguio ,Luzon , Philippines The Laperal White House is an eye-snatcher along Leonard Road, just beside the allegedly equally spirit-infested Teachers’ Camp. There have been many stories. Some unfortunate passersby have seen a little girl standing motionless on the third step of the staircase that fronts the house. Some have spotted a woman looking out its glass windows. Some have heard angry voices and loud noises from inside the house even when it was completely empty. Others have claimed they had this awful feeling of being unwelcome and being watched. The guards are also terrified to go in at night.~By Yoshke Dimen By Desiree Caluza > Lito Calvo, the house’s gardener for 14 years, is familiar with the ghost stories passed on by “Ate Lina,” a helper and a longtime caretaker employed by Roberto Laperal, who built the house in the 1930s. Calvo, 48, said Lina had told him the house was taken by Japanese soldiers from the Laperal family during World War II. The rooms and sections of the house were witnesses to the cruelty of the Japanese soldiers, he said. “This is the place where so many killings happened when Japanese soldiers lived here, that’s why it has always been believed that the ghosts of the past still haunt this house,” Calvo said. Alma Ramos, 37, the house’s caretaker for 10 years, believes the occupants were living with spirits. “The women were raped in the bedrooms, Filipino men who were accused of spying for the Americans were interrogated in the sala, then they were tortured and killed. There was even a house help who committed suicide here,” Ramos said. Restless spirits She said a visitor, presumably with a third eye, had told her that restless spirits lived in the house. “I was told the spirits were strongly felt in the master bedroom and in another bedroom,” she said. Ramos and Calvo said they had observed signs that the spirits were around. “The lights would switch off and on, and there were times that people who were passing by would see images moving by the windows,” Calvo said. Ramos said she heard strange footsteps from the stable in the basement and the sound of doors and windows being shuttered, even when there was no one around. She said a security guard and taxi drivers had told her they had seen an apparition of a “woman in white” going into and leaving the house. “The guard saw the [woman in white] enter through the gate and walk toward his direction in the porch, where he was resting. He also said the [apparition] walked over him and entered through the main door that was closed,” she said. She said several taxi drivers had told her they were afraid to pass by that section of Leonard Wood Road during late hours because they might see apparitions in the house. “Oftentimes, they honked their horns as they passed in front of the house, perhaps as a way of excusing themselves [to the spirits],” she said. Moving things Ramos said the spirits were too strong and might have overpowered her 8-year-old son, who, a spiritist had told her, had a “third eye.” “I had a novena held for my son so his third eye would be closed. I believe the energy of the spirits was draining his strength because he was often sick,” she said. But the spirits made themselves felt during the novena. “The candles and the flowers moved from one room to another, and no one among us had transferred them,” Ramos said. The Laperal house is Victorian, a style associated with affluence and extravagance. According to the book “Istilo,” a pocket guide to architecture styles in the Philippines that was published by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts this year, Victorian houses are narrow and tall, and have steep roofs, bay windows and stairs at the front door. It also features wooden planks, gables (the triangular upper part of a wall closing the end of a pitched roof) and dormers (windows projecting from the slope of the roof). Original wood The Laperal house, built on a 4-hectare property near Teachers’ Camp, still keeps its original yakal and narra wood. The receiving room has a fireplace and old furniture, while the main living room has been turned into an exhibit area for bamboo carvings. The dining area retains the old narra dining table. The house has a narrow staircase leading to the four rooms on the second floor. The master bedroom has a fireplace and a terrace. A narrow staircase leads to the view deck. The latest décor displayed in the house is a skullcap that Calvo found in March when he was digging in the garden. It sits on a windowsill by the staircase. Calvo said a former worker in the house found gold and silver coins underneath the fireplace in the receiving room. The worker, he said, kept the coins. According to Calvo and Ramos, a businessman now owns the property. The businessman bought it from one of the biggest realty companies in the country. Open to public The Laperal house was opened to the public in November last year after the Asin Bamboo Carvers Guild Inc. had used it for exhibitions. For a fee of P50, visitors can see the exhibit and tour the house. “This is an important structure in Baguio. It stood the test of time—it survived World War II and even the July 1990 earthquake. People will always notice this house,” Ramos said. newsinfo.inquirer.net/518129/signs-of-the-spirits-in-white-house One day, the caretaker of the house, who stays in another house within the premises, ordered a guard to cut down a fortune plant on one side of the house. The guard fell ill and could not walk for days. A guard also shared his personal experience inside. Once while he was doing the rounds inside, he received a call from his wife. The call went fine until she asked who he was with at the time. The wife apparently kept hearing a woman’s voice. Thing is, the guard was all alone.Even the residents and staff of neighboring establishments have their share of White House spooky encounters. One incident involving a clairvoyant happened at PNKY’s Restaurant just across the notorious house. “At that time PNKY’s was just on ground level,” Ferdz Decena of Ironwulf.net narrates. “When the Clairvoyant looked at the mirror of the restaurant, she was stunned when she saw a woman standing behind her along with the reflection of the house.” thepoortraveler.net/ Photo by~filipinaexplorer- Photo by~baguioguide-laperal-house-baguio-side-view Photo~3 and 5 bylakwatserongtsinelas/2014/02/ Photo by~elaljanelasola- Photo 6The Laperal White House is currently owned by business tycoon, Lucio Tan, which is now open to the public. The ground floor is now a gallery of bamboo crafts and works which aim is to increase public awareness in the importance of bamboo in the preservation of arts and culture of the Cordilleras, prevention of landslides and pollution control. This Ifugao Bamboo Carving Gallery is a joint project of the Philippine Bamboo Foundation Inc. and the Tan Yan Kee Foundation.bylakwatserongtsinelas
Posted on: Thu, 04 Sep 2014 14:20:06 +0000
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