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| EXORCISE. Fr. Dennis Son rubs holy water on the forehead of one of the 13 ROTC trainees who were purportedly possessed by spirits. |
by Elvie Roman-Roa
THE 45-day Reserve Officers Training Course (ROTC) summer camp at the 8th Regional Community Defense Group was disrupted when 13 trainees were said to have been possessed by spirits that necessitated an exorcism ritual by a priest. Five of the “possessed” were even hospitalized and are now declared in stable condition.
The commotion began on the 9th day of the training last Apr. 20, Holy Wednesday. The trainees were having a group prayer 10:00 before retiring to the barracks. Suddenly, cadette Maria B. Borden, 23 of San Jorge, Samar began shouting and running on top of the bed bunks in her quarters.
Within that hour, her behavior was followed by two other cadettes. Asst. Instructor Sgt. Cynthia Mae Oliva identified one of them as Gemma O. Uy of Banquerohan, Catarman, Northern Samar. Their bizarre behavior stopped when a pastor trainee said prayers.
The next day however, two other cadettes turned restless and blabbered foreign languages. Witnesses said they heard the two blabber in English, Spanish and Latin. Three other cadettes followed and appeared to have been also possessed.
At 7:00 that night, the five of them were taken to Sts. Peter & Paul Parish Church where a mass was being held. Two of them are Borden and Uy who were possessed the previous day. The others were identified as Marjore Cafe, Jecel Asuncion and Rejena Montederamos.
Inside the church, Fr. Dennis Son performed an exorcism while other parishioners, lay ministers, seminarians and members of Legion of Mary prayed over the cadettes. But when the cadettes turned restless that panicked many churchgoers, Mayor Eric C. Codilla ordered that they be taken to the hospital.
A former seminarian, Mayor Codilla believes what the cadettes experienced is stress-related considering ladies are not as physically tough as guys in military training. Parish Priest Rev. Fr. Gilbert Urbena agrees, saying the cadettes may have undergone over-fatigue and nervous breakdown.
On Good Friday afternoon, another cadette started having a seizure while pointing to the comfort room (CR) in their barracks. Group Commander Col. Pascual A. Somoray II said many enlisted men had strange experiences in that CR where hundreds of American soldiers were said to have been buried after a bombing in World War II.
The five cadettes were sedated most of the time during their confinement at Ospa-Farmers Medical Center. They were discharged on Black Saturday with a bill of P26,900 of which Mayor Codilla shouldered P17,000. One of the patients was diagnosed with urinary tract infection.
But the “possessions” went on through the weekend. All in all, 13 trainees, both men and women, were allegedly possessed by spirits named “Carmelita,” “Isaac,” “Luisito,” and a little girl named “Monica.” Fr. Soon said mass at Camp Jorge Downes on Easter Sunday 10:00 am attended by trainees and the soldiers’ wives.
Borden, one of those possessed, narrated her ordeal. According to her, her body was taken over by a certain “Carmelita” who was about 15 or 16 years old when she died. Carmelita said she was raped and killed in 1826, and her body was dumped near an acacia tree within the camp. She complained of being disturbed by the noise created by the military exercises.
TSgt. Ricardo Cabrera said ghost stories within the camp is not unusual. Some cadets claim to have seen ghosts while others hear marching sounds even if there were no exercises in the middle of the night. The ROTC summer clinic has 163 trainees, 74 of them female.
(West Leyte Weekly Express issue of Apr. 11-17, 2011)
