Spirits disrupt classes in local school

TABUK CITY, KALINGA - Classes at the Tabuk National High School (TNHS) were suspended on January 22 and 23 when at least 20 students were possessed by spirits who claimed they were dislocated by the construction of a new building in the school.

According to Principal Rodolfo Ballog, seven were seized on the first day and more than 10 on the second day.

Ballog said that the victims became hysterical and had extra strength as it took four to five students and teachers to hold and control each victim.

Ballog quoted the possessed students as saying that there were 15 spirits on the first day and 25 on the second day and that their common complaint was that their abode was disturbed when an old building on campus was demolished to give way to the new building.

“I am wondering because we butchered a pig and gave them their share before the groundbreaking for the new building,” Ballog said.

Ballog related that the spirits had many demands, foremost of which is that their bones should be relocated leading him to presume that the spirits were those of people buried in the old cemetery situated in the campus.

He said that the demand of the spirits is hard to comply with because the bones must have been scattered here and there when the ground of the school was bulldozed to level it many years ago.

“What if the bones are now under the buildings? What we should do now is try to appease them by complying with their other demands. We have already lighted candles at the bank of the Chico River as demanded by the spirit who calls herself Lorna. We did that twice,” Ballog said.

According to Tomrod Duclan, the first student who was possessed on the first day and was again victimized the second day and who his teachers say has a third eye, Lorna whom he described as a young woman in black dress and splattered with blood, had told him that she was raped and killed by three men on the banks of the Chico River.

Marilyn Galano, adviser of I Neptune, the class of Tomrod, said that Tomrod claimed Lorna first appeared to him on January 21 and that on the morning of December 19 when he opened the classroom - he is the key keeper - his hair stood on end because of the smell of menstrual blood.

Ballog said that they will also comply with the demand of the second wave of spirits for candles to be lighted, the feathers of a white native chicken burned and prayers uttered on the basketball court of the school at 3 PM of January 23.

“We will also request during the mass this Sunday that prayers be made for the eternal repose of the souls of all spirits who are still roaming around especially those who are staying at the TNHS. I believe that these are the spirits whom the priests say we should pray for. They are restless and they enter human bodies so they could communicate with the living. What is bad is that the students they entered suffered due to the physical exertion,” Ballog said.

Priests and pastors have gone to the school to pray during the first and second day but still the seizures continued.

Apart from Christian prayers and rites, Ballog said that the school also planned to employ the dawak, a Kalinga native way of driving bad spirits performed by a mandadawak (shaman) and involving the offering of an animal.

Ballog said that this is not the first case of spirit possession in TNHS because around 10 years ago, three students were also seized but that after a day, the attacks stopped. **By Estanislao Albano Jr., ZZW

Tabuk suddenly found religion as Supreme Court was to deliberate on its cityhood

TABUK CITY, KALINGA - Through the leadership of city officials and the local clergy, some 3,500 people gathered here January 20 to pray for God’s intervention in the resolution of the case regarding the status of the 16 new cities in the country which include this city.

Two motions for reconsideration of the earlier decision of the Supreme Court (SC) declaring the laws converting the erstwhile towns into cities unconstitutional are now pending before the SC.

The city government and the local clergy organized the prayer rally on the beliefs “that we cannot just rely on human wisdom to determine the fate of our future generations” and that prayers are potent means of directing the flow of history.

“We are all Christians. We all believe in the power of prayer. We believe that God can touch the hearts and minds of the justices,” Vice Mayor Rainier Sarol explained why the city government resorted to prayers.

He said that the prayer rally was meant to ask God to enlighten the minds and hearts of the six justices who he said overturned the will of the millions who ratified the cityhood laws of the erstwhile towns and all of the members of both houses of Congress which enacted the laws.

Sarol said that while the judicial power of the Supreme Court is awesome, the justices cannot resist if divine power which can be prompted by the prayers of believers will move them to decide in favor of the 16 cities.

For his part, Bishop Renato Abibico lashed at the League of Cities of the Philippines who challenged the legality of the laws converting the 16 cities before the SC saying that what prompted them to file the petition was sheer greed.

He said that after enjoying large internal revenue allotments (IRAs) from the national government for so long, they should be by now reaping the fruits of their investment and should not begrudge other localities the chance to progress through their conversion to cities which entitle them to bigger shares from national revenues.

Before the participants recited the prepared common prayer, speakers representing the executive and legislative departments of the city government, the barangay councils, the senior citizens and the city college scholars pictured how their respective sectors were benefitted by the conversion of Tabuk into a component city in 2007 and how reversion to a municipality will affect these.

The common prayer which was uttered by the assembly as they held lighted candles asked God to let the Holy Spirit enlighten the justices so that they will come up with a “fair and just verdict, and if possible, a verdict that favors us.”

“We cling to Your divine mercy and trust on the abundance of Your grace to grant this petition knowing that it is best for our people and our beloved city,” the prayer also said.

In a press conference after the rally, Sarol said that in the event that the SC will deny the motion for reconsideration with finality, Tabuk City has three options: first, it could band together with other capital towns to push the existing idea of converting all capital towns into cities in Congress; second, work really hard to attain the P100M local income requirement; and third, work for the amendment of RA 9009 lowering anew the income requirement to P20M.

Sarol called reversion to a town a challenge to the people of Tabuk- to its leadership, to provide the necessary services and to the citizenry, to do their share.

Earlier, the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) passed Resolution No. 001, series of 2009, appealing to the SC to reconsider its ruling calling the attention of the SC justices to some salient facts about Tabuk City which were not mentioned in the joint motion for reconsideration.

The SP said that with its 11,278 hectares of riceland, Tabuk City is dubbed the breadbasket of the Cordillera and even once held the title “Hybrid Rice Capital of the Country.”

“Upholding the cityhood of Tabuk means more funding support to agriculture which translates to higher agricultural output that is in pursuance of the national administration’s program on food sufficiency and security,” the SP said.

The SP also mentioned that Tabuk City is the “Whitewater Rafting Capital of the Philippines” and its location relative to the Cordillera and Cagayan provinces gives it the potential of becoming one of the economic hubs of Northern Luzon.

According to the SP, the Cordillera is one of neglected regions of the country with Baguio City as its sole city if the SC denies the motion for reconsideration of the 16 cities.

“The cityhood of Tabuk will spur, spread and tremendously enhance the development of the northern part of the region,” the SP claimed.

The SP also mentioned that the SC en banc had passed a resolution converting the Municipal Trial Court of Tabuk into a Municipal Trial Court in Cities and that the Department of Justice has also constituted the City Prosecutor’s Office.

According to sources, the motion for reconsideration was calendared by the SC on January 20 but the deliberation was deferred for a later undisclosed date. **By Estanislao Albano Jr., ZZW