Paranormal Investigations at Teachers Camp

This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. Unexplained now has a substack page. If you enjoy Unexplained and want to go deeper into the world of the show, I've created a new space for all the bits that don't quite fit into the podcast. including the unexplained addendum, a weekly companion piece to each new episode. Expect essays that lean more academic and analytical, explorations of folklore, psychology, and the shadowy corners of history that have shaped the stories you hear on the show. But it's also a home for something more personal. My fiction, my strange amusings, and the odd fragments that don't belong anywhere else. Search for unexplained podcast on Substack or go to unexplained podcast.substack.com to find out more and subscribe. If you'd like a little bit more of me and Unexplained in your week, join me on Substack and let's keep exploring the unknown together. New writing every Monday. Please note that this episode contains graphic accounts of torture and death. Parental discretion is advised. We're about to go to some very dark places. If you're happy to take the ride, then please strap in. In the early hours of November 17, 1981. on the shores of Manila Bay in Pazay City, in the Philippines. Harsh floodlights shine down through a warm, hazy darkness, illuminating a hive of activity. Two thousand men hurriedly work to finish the latest in a series of vanity projects for Amelda Marcos. The much feared First Lady of the Philippines. Another two thousand are bedded down in the squatters village that have sprung up around the building site. doing their best to get some rest before the next round of shifts begin. vast concrete edifice currently taking shape. Brutalist interpretation of the Parthenon of ancient Greece. will in time become a vast film theatre. It has been designed by architect Froylin Hong to host the inaugural Manila International Film Festival. which Amalded Marcos hopes will one day become the Asian equivalent of Cannes. Bigger even. Hong has been given only eight months to complete the project. Time is fast running out. sparks fly and drills whiz as labourers hurry up and down the wooden scaffolding that encases the entire structure. Some are working on the main auditorium. preparing it for another slab port to complete the ceiling. Others are busy constructing two smaller theaters above it. Elsewhere, another team is installing two Garish thrones in what will become the VIP section for Amelda and her husband. President Ferdinand Marcos to sit on. The construction crew has been relying on a quick drying concrete to help speed up the building process. with little time given to let it set between pourings. Not that anyone has really been keeping track. In the haste to complete the structure, a number of different building companies and materials have been drafted in. Creating at best, a form of semi organized chaos on site. Some workers are clocking in for one company. then wandering off elsewhere to clock in with another. Some are said to take both paychecks without actually doing any work. Materials are routinely pilfered between companies, who rarely seem to be on the same page with how best to manage the construction. Concrete just keeps on coming. It's just gone two AM. when another vast load of it is poured into the four-story high ceiling of the auditorium. The gray sludge oozes into the plywood casing. all held up by a vast lattice of wooden timbers underneath. No one hears the crack. under the vast cacophony of noise. Then something gives you. The scaffolding holding up the film center's roof collapses. Bringing everything and everyone above with it. The men below have just enough time to look up. As a hellish rain falls down upon them. A deluge of concrete. Bodies. Metal rods. Splintered wood. Steel cabling. last of all, those two garish thrones. The tomber of the screams and thunder of falling debris, amplified wonderfully by the acoustics of the vast auditorium. Rises to a bone rattling crescendo. Then all is silent. Until the screen start again. A few days after the catastrophic collapse of the building's roof, The national press print a few small stories detailing a minor incident at the film center construction site. They count four dead among thirty or so injured. The following day. The death toll rises to seven. Then the story stops. Incredibly, despite the setback, And under intense pressure from a Mel De Marcos. Freulin Hong drafts in even more workers and materials, and the building is completed just in time for the opening night at the film festival. Which took place on january eighteenth. Ninete two. It said that workers were still applying the finishing touches, as the many film stars and guests of honour arrived in a barrage of shutter clicks and flashbulb lights. accompanied by a military band and a stunning firework display. What stars they were. Peter O tool. Shields and Priscilla Presley, among many others, All revelled in the lavish opening night. It would be eleven years before the full sickening truth came out. There wasn't a soul within earshot of that horrific disaster that didn't know the real story of what happened that tragic day. But no one dared say a thing. Although President Ferdinand was elected president in 1965, In nineteen seventy two. Having secured a second term. He declared martial law and ruled as a dictator for the next 14 years. And in Emel de Marcos, he found the perfect accomplice. Recognizing the ruthless ambition in each other. They were married only eleven days after they met in 1954. And the rest for many. It's Grim. Painful history. With a Melda occupying a number of prominent government roles. Together with her husband, they are said to have overseen the torture of over 30,000 opponents. Imprisoned twice as many. And murdered or disappeared thousands. And that's before you even get into the rampant corruption and greed. Character with the pair estimated to have stolen somewhere in the region of 5 to 10 billion US dollars in public funds. Neither were to be messed with. So when Amelda declared a film festival would take place on january the eighteenth, nineteen eighty two, By hook or by crook. With sweat, blood and tears. So many tears. That festival would be taking place. On january eighteenth. Nineteen eighty two. Needless to say, when the key centerpiece to that vainglorious dream completely collapsed, only months before the opening night, There was some frantic strategising about how best to deal with it. Security teams and secret police administered an immediate blackout of the site. Amulence and rescue services were prevented from attending the scene for at least nine hours. Press wouldn't be an issue. Since the Marcoses controlled it all. What is said to have happen next. is almost too shocking to be believed. You're listening to Unexplained. I Richard McClain. Although the regime had been toppled in nineteen eighty six, As is always the case. The collective memory of totalitarian terror. has an insidious way of lingering in the hearts and minds of all those who experience it. Some felt brave enough. tell their story. Workers from the site who were there that day. recounted the initial horror of the collapse. They spoke of hundreds of men being trapped under the debris. Many didn't survive the fall. Some were impaled on reinforcement parts. But that wasn't the worst of it. With all the wet concrete falling down to It started to steadily pool around them. And then it began to set. Workers recounted the sickening sound of countless men screaming for help. as they suddenly found their limbs, encased by the quick setting concrete. Not only did it hold them fast where they were But due to the extensive heat. chemically generated by the setting process. Began to cook them too. Anyone able to get to the site twerked frantically. Tunnelling through the debris by candlelight. co-workers with little more than hammers and chisels to try and break them out. Project engineer Benino Aquino was trapped from the thighs down. Held fast by the concrete. For twenty four hours he sang hymns and joked with his colleagues to keep his spirits up. as they worked desperately to chip him out. When they finally cut him loose, it was too late. He died from shock. After his legs had been completely baked through. He was one of the few that was formally identified. It was around that time that Amalda Marcos called her key advisor, Abe Canlis, who was in Austria. He flew back immediately and headed straight to the scene to inspect the damage. A short time later he called a melder with some good news. The festival could still go ahead. If And only if pause work on the two additional theaters and the basement, which was to serve as a cultural archive, and concentrate their efforts on finishing the main auditorium. And the building's facade. Melder reluctantly agreed. It is said that the stench of putrefying flesh hung heavy in the humid air as the bulldozers arrived. Some claimed that men could still be heard screaming and crying. As they rolled in to push the tons and tons of concrete. Steel and bodies into the vast pit. that had been prepared a short distance away in Manila Bay. All that was left. Prepare it for the numerous tiers of seating that still needed to be installed. After all. All those protruding heads, limbs and torso. Sticking out to the recently set concrete. Just wouldn't do. team of men were sent in with chainsaws to cut them away. More stubborn body parts were broken out with jackhammers. With some claiming that every so often with some bodel preserved. Arterial jets of blood were seen spraying out at the floor when the concrete was broken open. A few months later. When President Ferdinand and Emil de Marcos took to the stage, in all their regal finery, To welcome all to the first inaugural Manila Film Festival. It would be wrong to say that no one had the faintest idea. of the horrors that had been in tomb. Concrete. Their seats. Conservative estimates suggest that 168 workers in total lost their lives in the Film Center atrocity. Which says nothing of the countless others who were injured. Many life changingly so. In the end, the festival didn't last beyond a second year. After which, the building was repurposed for other uses. But ever since. There have been reports that odd smells often fill the backstage areas. Employees on duty late at night have testified to hearing moans and eerie noises. Others have experienced feelings of being blown on, or strange tingling sensations. Some have even claimed to see the ghosts of dead laborers. At one point group of eighty Filipino spiritualists. Held a seance inside the building. and claimed to sense the presence of at least thirty spirits who were not at peace. The deadly accident is said by some to have been the beginning of the end for the Marcoses. One more high profile nail in the coffin of a regime. but the tragically haunting disaster of the Manila Film Center. It's nothing compared to what happened in the Philippines during the dark years of World War Two. and Japanese occupation. Atrocities that have led to a whole host of apparent hauntings and an entire tourism industry based around them. Tourism has always existed in one way or another. Since it plays into a number of very human impulses. However, it was only in the mid-1990s that it emerged as an academic concept. It was back in 1996 that tourism scholar, Anthony Seaton, published an influential paper with the quietly ominous title. Guided by the dark, from Thanotopsis to Thano-Tourism. Seeton proposed something unsettling, yet instantly recognizable. Many people are drawn. Consciously or not. Places touched by death. called this impulse Thano Tourism. Taking the word Thanatos. The Greek personification of death. describe a form of travel motivated by a desire to contemplate Confront or even commune with mortality. Seeton argued that this fascination was not a modern invention, but a perennial human instinct. Medieval pilgrims treked to shrines that held the bones of saints. Victorians strolled through cemeteries as if they were manicured parks. Crowds gathered for public executions, long before television turned distant tragedy into nightly entertainment. Thanatourism, Seaton suggested. was simply the academic name for an ancient Uneasy truth. We have always been pulled toward the places. Where life ends. By the late ninety ninety. tourism scholars John Lennon and Malcolm Foley of Glasgow Caledonian University. We're observing a new kind of travel. One shaped not just by death itself, but by the global media landscape that now broadcast catastrophe and almost real time. In their two thousand book. Tourism. The attraction of death and disaster. They gave this widening phenomenon its now famous name. Tourism. It wasn't only about seeking out sites of mortality. It was about the strange magnetic pull of places specifically associated with Tragedy. Violence. or collective trauma. It encompassed everything from the solemn hush of the Auschwitz Birkenau Memorial. Locations where the distance abstract sense of just what exactly happened there. still lingers in the air, like tangible remnants of a psychical event. It would be easy to dismiss the many curious individuals who frequent these places and as simply Macabre voyeurs. But as Seeton, Lennon and Foley have suggested. The reasons they go there are far more disturbing. We are drawn to these places by a strange compulsion. in a way similar to a Pell David. Call of the void. to stand in the presence of death or disaster. for meaning or connection. or perhaps simply for the sensation of being confronted. However, briefly. By the fragility of our own existence. But there is something else that also draws some people to these places. prospect of a truly frightening encounter. And no more so than in the Philippines, where over the past couple of decades. Tourism has proved especially popular. With good reason. The city of Baguio, known as the summer capital of the Philippines. Located at roughly five thousand feet above sea level. was first established as a hill station by the United States, whose government colonized the country in 1898. During World War II, however. It became one of the most destroyed Philippine cities. Second only to its capital, Manila. While under Japanese occupation. It was the site of some of the worst atrocities of the war. As such, today Baguio City has some of the most visited dark tourism sites in the country. One of them is the Laporole White House. The old Victorian style wooden mansion was built for the wealthy Lapral family in the 1920s. Today, it is said to be one of the country's most haunted properties. Some believe it all stems back to a tragic event in the mid-1920s. when the youngest of six laparole children. A three year old girl. is said to have wandered out at the gates and been killed by a passing vehicle. The maid who was minding the child felt so guilty about the accident. That shortly afterwards she committed suicide. And things only went downhill from there. Over the next decade. One after another of the Laporole's children are said to have died violent and unexpected deaths. Either in the house or on the way to it. Later, after the Japanese military invaded the country in nineteen forty one, during the Second World War, Whispers emerged that captured soldiers were taken to the house to be tortured or killed. Both. Many local women who were forced into sexual slavery by members of the Japanese army are also said to have been raped there. When the country was later liberated with the help of the US military. White House was stormed by US soldiers. One Japanese soldier still inside. Rather than surrender. is said to have thrown himself headfirst his death from the second floor balcony. It wasn't long after that, when a peculiar and ethereal lady in white was first apparently seen meandering around the rooms and peeking out at the house's windows. Child are also said to have been heard playing and laughing inside the property. while others have heard what they took to be feet running down corridors. or seen shadowy figures going through the rooms. Photos taken inside the house appear to show curious phenomena taking place. Shining orbs or shadowy figures, including one image of what looks to be a figure in a Japanese military uniform. The ghost of the suicidal soldier. said to haunt the second floor balcony, according to some. There have also been frequent reports of visitors being overcome by an overwhelming fear that something dreadful is about to happen. But there is another site in Baggio City, which has an even darker past. When the Japanese military invaded the Philippines. Just ten hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, expats from Western nations, and anyone suspected of being an enemy combatant. were rounded up and taken to local hotels for processing. Often captives were crammed into rooms so small that they took it in turns to stand and sleep. There was little air in the rooms. and even less food. Once interrogations had been completed, Prisoners considered high risk were sent to camps. Close. Water and proper nutrition, increase the risk of disease. Lice and mosquitoes were a constant menace. One of those places was the Baggio teachers camp. Built in nineteen oh eight. In the hills on the eastern edge of Bagio. On the orders of then American Governor, William Pack, began life as little more than a scattering of tents, serving as classrooms and dormitories for training teachers. Permanent structures were added a few years later. Between 1936 and 1941, it was used by the Philippine Military Academy. When the Imperial Japanese Army arrived. It became a place of torture. It's hard to find stories from the teacher's camp directly, but it's likely the conditions were similar to those described firsthand by inmates at other camps. Food would be scarce. Often the one meal of the day was nothing more than a gooey rice soup. At least it looked like rice. More often than not. It was infested with maggots. was a common occurrence. Either from starvation or torture. One distinctly dreadful method used by the Japanese army to get information from prisoners was the water technique. First, a long tube would be violently forced down your nose or mouth until it reached your stomach. Then a funnel was added to the end of it. Into which liters and liters of water were poured. until the stomach couldn't hold any more. Then with your belly full You'd be thrown to the floor, whereupon your stomach would be stomped on repeatedly. until you died an excruciating death. It's also said that hundreds of people were beheaded at the camp. Buried in mass graves. After heavy bombing in 1945, The American army liberated. Baggio. People slowly began to rebuild their shattered lives. Today. The camp continues to operate as a training centre for teachers. as well as an events venue. To the unknowing eye, looking out across the idyllic setting, there is nothing to hint at the horrors of the past. But such things rarely stay buried for long. Over the years. Many guests and staff have reported everything from hearing eerie whispers echoing through the halls to the Monstrous apparitions. One of these is reportedly a headless priest that wanders the corridors after dark. Another is said to be the spirit of a lovesick woman who follows young female guests back to their dorms. and watches over them while they sleep. Some have claimed to wake up. to see the apparition of a blood soaked woman. Hovering over their bed. In 2023, Steve Ronin, a YouTuber who explores eerie and abandoned sites, conducting paranormal investigations. arrived with a group of friends for an overnight stay at the camp. arrived late in the afternoon. With them an arsenal of ghost hunting equipment. Includic fields or EMF meters. and radiating electromagnetic field pods, or REM pods. Designed to measure fluctuations and electromagnetic radiation. They brought digital thermometers and a variety of cameras with night vision. One device, known as a music box, converts changes in the electromagnetic field to a creepy musical tune if any supposed moved near it. Last but by no means least. Was the spirit box? Commonly, this is a digital device that rapidly scans radio frequencies. Some believe that spirits can manipulate these frequencies to effectively hold conversations with the living by rapidly editing voices on the radio to form sentences. Today they come as apps on a smartphone. can apparently detect unusual electromagnetic fluctuations and convert them into speech. Which is to say. If there was anything untoward occurring on the site. They had everything they needed to capture it. As Steve and the others arrived at the camp, They were a little underwhelmed at first. Looking around at their tranquil surroundings, up there in the tree covered hills. It all seemed so peaceful and calm. If theirs had been a wasted journey. Things quickly changed when the sun went down. The team elected to stay in Guest House three for the night. One of the many residences at the camp. Wasting little time. They proceeded to spread their equipment throughout the property. Including up cameras to cover every angle of the apartment. Steve and Zark. Well the other two filmed in night vision. table in front of them was an EMF meter. REM pod and the smartphone equipped with the Spirit Box app. Then the lights were switched off. The group started by introducing themselves to the room. We come here to be very respectful, said Steve. If there are any spirits. Feel free to come and sit down next to us and communicate with these devices. Dude, said Zark suddenly. Pointing at the phone. Which seemed to pick up something. An automated female voice from the Spirit Box app. The silence. No I won't. It's it. Just then a creepy jingle rang out from the music box in an adjacent room. Having seemingly been triggered by something unseen. It's walking around us, said one of the team, ominously from behind the camera. Are you here with us? asked Steve, hopefully. Once again came that sinister twinkle of music from the box next door. For the next hour or so the young men. continued to converse with the apparent entity. I'm sad. It appeared to say through the phone at one point. accompanied by a ping from the REM pot, which also seemed to light up in response. Why are you sad, Austin? Provoker. Other apparent communications by Steve Ronin and his team during their investigation Included the words. This is helping me. Shake shot. She screams. The forest is home. For Ronin and his team. There was little doubt that they were in the presence of a genuine spirit. After a few hours. group decided to turn off all their equipment and listen out for any non-electronic communication. Precise moment. One of the camered itself off. I've been watching you Blurted out the voice from the phone soon after. Followed by the name Florence. Well That's my sister's name, said Steve in confusion. And so it continued until roughly four AM. when having failed to establish exactly who the purported entity was, or what its precise history with the camp might be. The team called it a night. Bacyo teaches camp And indeed the site of the now abandoned film centre. are considered to be among the most haunted locations in the world. They are haunted by history is in little doubt. As for whether they are truly haunted by the spirits of those who died there, That remains. Exclusive. This episode was written by Richard McLean Smith and Diane Hope. Thank you as ever for listening. Unexplained is an AV Club production podcast created by Richard McClain Smith. All other elements of the podcast, including the music. are also produced by me. Richard McLean Smith. Unexplained the book and audiobook is now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase from Amazon, Barnes and Noble. Waterstones and other bookstores. Please subscribe to and rate the show wherever you get your podcasts. and feel free to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have an explanation or a story of your own you'd like to share. Find out more at unexplainedpodcast.com and reaches online through X and Blue Sky, but unexplained pod. And Facebook. At facebook.com Forward slash. Unexplained Podcast.