Tuba “possessed” students okay

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TUBA, Benguet (Aug. 27) – Tuba students earlier reported as “possessed” are now acting as normal as their classmates, a school authority said last week, clarifying that a construction was stalled due to delay in stonewalling, not because of the July incident.

The said Tuba National High School students have resumed attending classes and have not been manifesting signs of ill-health, Macarthy Malanes, teacher-in-charge told Nordis recently.

Malanes said the students were not “possessed” as earlier reported but displayed a case of mass hysteria when some of them did not understand why there are those who behaved differently in early July.

“They screamed, and ran short of breath. Some even collapsed,” Malanes described the children.

“It did not happen again saved for one occasion when a group of Japanese came and made some interviews on video,” he said.

Malanes added that while a group of Japanese were interviewing some of them, their classmates were reminded of their experience while narrating their ordeal.

“Suddenly, some of them were again crying and panicking, so we had to stop the interviews,” Malanes recounted.

According to Malanes, some townspeople even exaggerated the story, even linking the stoppage of the construction of the two-storey Home Economics Building to the “possession” of students. He clarified that the construction had to be stopped because a portion of the wall needs some rip-rapping work.

Malanes also dismissed the theory that a large tunnel exists under the said lot where the HE building sits. It is believed to be a Japanese garrison. He said, one of the posts sank a few meters and tilted because there is a small waterway beneath its foundation, which the carpenters did not notice at once.

“We will still entertain any investigation into the incident, inasmuch as old folk believe the area has been used as a Japanese garrison,” Malanes told this reporter as he said he would keep an open mind on the matter.

The construction of the P4-million school building will resume once the stonewall is done, Malanes told Nordis. He said, stonewalling construction work had to stop because of the inclement weather.

Local folk and town officials insisted on performing some native rituals to “appease the worldly spirits” whom they believed were “disturbed by the construction”, to which Malanes could only submit giving due respect to the traditional beliefs.

“To satisfy the old folk, we respected their decision to perform a ritual here,” he said pointing at the area where a bowl of water still sits. # Lyn V. Ramo for NORDIS