FIVE years ago, security personnel Efren Dacanay was making his inspection rounds at Cagayan de Oro's Hall of Justice. He was on graveyard shift.
It was around 10 p.m. when he grabbed his flashlight and strolled around the area's grounds.
His two other companions were assigned to inspect the other areas of the Hall of Justice grounds and so he proceeded to walk solely towards his assigned area.
"Of course it was necessary that we look at the place especially in those times of the night. We try to keep the area clear of thieves or maybe teenagers or 'tambays'," Dacanay said.
By that time, Dacanay had been serving as one of the guards for the Hall of Justice for over five months. Stories of ghosts and supernatural occurrences from other employees no longer bothered him even in his nighttime inspections.
"Somehow, I haven't been a believer of ghosts ever since. Working at night at the Hall of Justice did not really scare me," he recalled.
That is until his very first supernatural encounter at the Hall of Justice. As he paced to his assigned area, Dacanay noticed that one of the first floor office room's lights were turned on. He found it weird because at that time, offices should already be closed and employees have gone home hours ago. Thinking that someone just left the lights on, Dacanay walked closer to the room to inspect it.
"I was certain that in our prior inspection hours ago the area was clear and no one was in any of the offices. It was just us, the security guards," he said.
Dacanay did not have access to the room's door so he decided to take a look over the window. However, halfway to it, he was surprised that the room's lights suddenly turned off.
"I stood still for about a few seconds because I was not able to move. I think that was largely caused by the shock and the idea of ghosts at the back of my mind but thankfully, I was able to move after forcing myself to do so," Dacanay recalled.
At that very moment, Dacanay was already scared. His heart was pounding as he slowly continued to walk to the window. When he was almost near, Dacanay was certain that he heard the sound of someone typing in computers, the ceiling fan and closing of cabinet drawers. Even though scared, he still thought of the possibility of thieves so he found the courage to peek through the curtained window.
"For a moment, standing beside that window and hearing those things, I told myself 'this could not be it, this couldn't be true,' But I heard what I heard and then I saw nothing. It was terrifying," he narrated.
Dacanay said that for the brief moment when he had a look of the room, he could only describe it as "empty." It did not fester and there was no reason why he could have distinctly heard those sounds.
"Confirming it, I fell back. I felt my hands going cold and I did not mind if I am not finished with my area inspection. I ran as fast as I could to the guard post. When I reached it, my legs were shaking so hard and I could not understand how I felt. My body was hot from running but my sweat was cold, “he said.
Even though he did not see any ghosts or whatever caused the sounds that he heard, Dacanay was certain that on that night, he added to the number of horror stories heard over about the Hall of Justice.
"That has got to be one of the most unforgettable things in my entire life. When my companions came back, they even got scared themselves because I was pale and I seemed to have been jumpy," he added.
Efren Dacanay's story is only one of the countless ghosts stories on this city’s Hall of Justice, along with stories from other employees and from people who reside and work in the surrounding area.
While some people prefer to shrug these stories off thinking that these were only made to scare people, others however, connect these to the fact that the land where the Hall of Justice stood is the old public cemetery of the city.
The fire that burned down the Cagayan de Oro Hall of Justice on January 2015 only elevated the creepy stories of the place. Its blackened walls, dark halls, and crumbled roof make it a perfect backdrop for a spine-tingling scary story.
The city's history affirms that the portion of Hayes street beside Xavier University to the old office site of the City hall of Justice has been the area of the city's public cemetery for many generations. In fact, as early as the 1900s, that area had already been serving as the resting place for the city's dead.
"In the olden times, this area was actually forest-like. The center of our town was in the modern-day Gaston Park and Divisoria and so, the early town leaders decided to make this the cemetery," said James Judith, a lawyer and a resident of the place.
However, a few years ago, the city government decided to transfer the City Public Cemetery to the Bolonsiri Public Cemetery at Barangay Camaman-an. Issues of area insufficiency for future graves was the main issue that the government wanted to target along with the matter of the city's development in that area. Hence, the people were given notice that they should transfer their loved ones' remains to the new public cemetery.
The fact remains though, that some of the remains in the cemetery are still unclaimed. These could be because of the fact that their families have long moved out from Cagayan de Oro or their graves have already been forgotten. This fact remains one of the biggest source for the countless tales of the supernatural in the area.
After the city public cemetery was relocated, the Hall of Justice was one of the most prominent establishments erected in the area.
The two-storey hall housed 28 courts, the city prosecutor’s office and the Misamis Oriental provincial prosecutor’s office. It was then that its employees would report flickering lights, the sound of shutting of doors, apparitions of playing children, guards overhearing people talking way beyond office hours, lost and misplaced things, cold spots, old music playing out of nowhere and mysterious crying sounds in the Hall's comfort rooms.
Rhobeliza Gallo who served as a clerk in one of the old Hall of Justice's offices recalled that her experience with ghosts happened when she was at the comfort room one time.
"It was really early when I got there, I think it was only past 7:30 am. But I come from Lumbia so I usually go to work early so as not to be late. When I got to the Hall of Justice I went straight to the comfort room. When I was in the cubicle, I heard that someone also entered in the other cubicle. I heard the door opened and I can see her shadow on the little space under the cubicle's door. Although she or it did not speak, I can at least hear the walking. I was really positive that there was someone because you would feel it if you are not alone right? However, when I got out, there was no one. I would have heard it if someone came out again but I was totally alone," Gallo said.
After realizing that she was alone all that time, Gallo was so scared that she sprinted out of the CR puzzling her officemates who noted that she looked pale and scared.
The Hall of Justice's fire last year, which claimed the lives of one security guard and one employee, prompted the government to transfer the Hall of Justice's operations in its current office at the City Hall grounds. While there have been plans to renovate the building so that it can be used again as the Hall of Justice, there has been no move so far to fix the place.
With its abandoned and dilapidated look, the old Hall of Justice building on Hayes Street remains to be one of the scariest places in Cagayan de Oro. The security guards working here still reports supernatural incidences in their duty though they try to ignore them.
"No one is allowed to enter the burned building for the reason that the floors and the roof are weak and can easily crumble. It is really scary thought to sometimes hear laughing or crying people somewhere inside or shadows passing us in inspections. We ignore them though because if we don't, we believe that they might scare us more," said JR, one of the two current security personnel of the old Hall of Justice's site.
The old public cemetery's area is quite big. It included the area of flower vendors in Hayes street. This area is currently owned by the city's Aglipayan Church and is being temporarily rented off to flower vendors.
Celia, a flower vendor in the area said that there are still times when some people would come in their area to light candles for their loved ones whose graves they were not able transfer before.
"Some people would go here and ask us permission to light candles and we allow them. But then, later they were asked to stop doing so by the other flower vendors because it damages the business," she said.
Her husband narrated that because the flower vendors' area is densely filled with plants, it is quite dark and sometimes he and his fellow vendors would have individual feelings sightings of what they think are ghosts.
Recently, Attorney James Judith whose office is a few meters away from the Hall of Justice has unearthed human bones six feet under his office. This is while he was renovating a part of his law office.
"While the workers were digging for the foundations,they accidentally dug up some human bone fragments, a frayed leather belt and 2 beer bottles (which were accidentally hit and broken) with one of it bearing the embossed print: Dai Nippon Brewery Ltd. and the other R &Co.15," Judtih said.
The fact that his office is just a few meters away from the old cemetery sparked Judith's interest for the bones which he immediately referred to the city's Historical and Cultural Commission.