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Evil spirits haunt the new Manila International Airport, press
reports quoted unnamed officials as saying. To stop the series of
“untoward incidents” in the facility, they are looking for ways
to contact the spirits, which is scary. Many ghosts have deep
pockets and are hard to please.
Ghost projects lead to financial losses because
nobody has found a way to audit the ghosts. Also, people involved in
ghost projects disappear without a trace. It’s a hair-raising
experience in terms of expense.
The reality of ghosts is a vexed subject that
divides believers and skeptics. Some claims of ghostly phenomena are
proven frauds. Others remained unexplained or are subjects of
conflicting explanations.
How do you explain millions of pesos of
taxpayers’ money allegedly spent on roads and other public
infrastructure that turn out to be apparitions? Any kind of
apparition drives government auditors to madness.
In many folk stories, ghosts are described as
deceased people looking for vengeance, or imprisoned on earth for
bad things they did during life. A place where ghosts are supposed
to appear is described as haunted. It appears that the airport
ghosts are looking for revenge on the people there now, or some of
them, who while still alive, did bad things such as sending
government auditors to the mental institution.
Journalists said people are really scared of
official claims that the new Ninoy Aquino International Airport
Three is haunted. It begs the question: Does it mean the new airport
has become another ghost project? “It’s eerie,” says one
journalist who said she wants to express her fears to the Ombudsman.
But officials insist that strange things have
happened at the airport. Before its opening a few months ago, the
ceiling of the mezzanine floor collapsed on one of the luggage
carousels. A few months back a security guard was killed when he was
thrown off a motorcycle and banged a concrete wall with his head.
The latest incident involved a woman who tried
to commit suicide by hanging herself at the Fourth floor with a
scarf. Other people rushed to bring her down just in time. The
strangest of them all, of course, was the big hullabaloo about the
controversial bidding of the project and claims of alleged payoffs.
How do you appease the spirits? journalists
asked. “We are thinking of hiring a Chinese feng shui expert to
get advice on what to do to avoid negative vibrations that seem to
hound the building,” said one airport official, who asked not to
be named to avoid curious looks from the Ombudsman. Feng shui is an
ancient Chinese practice of arranging home or work environments to
promote health, happiness and prosperity.
Feng shui is good but it may not work because
the ghosts and the people in the building are not Chinese, some
journalists said. Besides, the ghosts may be angry because of some
people’s undeserved prosperity. The ghosts might think that the
rantings and manipulations of the feng shui expert were meant as
joke, the journalists said.
The official said they are also considering
doing the Igorot ritual of killing a chicken and sprinkling its
blood in the area. They believe the ritual is a good way to drive
the spirits away. “We will hire an Igorot spiritualist or shaman
to make sure the ritual is performed correctly,” the official
said.
The chicken ritual is not a bad idea because it
is familiar to Filipinos. We assume, of course, that most of the
ghosts are Filipinos. But it is not far-fetch that some of them may
be Chinese, and they might think that the Igorot blood sprinkling
ritual is another joke.
Why not use both Igorot and feng shui just to
make sure they drive the spirits away? Talk about evil spirits in
the airport is not good for business. And their effort to drive the
ghosts away might work like a boomerang. They instead drive the
travelers away.
How do you measure success of unconventional
methods such as feng shui and the Igorot ritual? The officials have
to make an announcement about the airport being free of evil
spirits, or time will come when only those landing on a broom will
avail themselves of its facilities.
If the ghosts are still there even after the
rituals, let’s call in the Ombudsman. It has an impressive record
in handling ghost projects. The Ombudsman does not recite any
incantation. It does not rearrange furniture. It does not sprinkle
blood. All it does is issue a warrant of arrest and the ghosts
disappear.
Many people will benefit from a decisive action
by the Ombudsman. Among them will be the government auditors. No
need to send them to the mad house.
palaciosjp@sss.gov.ph
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