Ang Multo sa Malacañang Palace

The complex on the Pasig began as a Spanish colonial-era country house in the mid-eighteenth century and became the seat of colonial and then national power. It has been continuously occupied through the Philippine Revolution, the American period, the Japanese occupation, the Marcos years and every administration since.

Very few Philippine buildings have that much continuous political history, and almost none of it is calm.

The accounts attached to Malacañang are notable for their sources: presidents and their families, Presidential Security Group personnel, and household staff. What gets described is consistent and unglamorous — footsteps in corridors, doors, presences in rooms known to be empty.

These remain reputation and recollection, not documented events. We report that such accounts exist and are widely repeated, which is true, without treating them as established fact.

A retelling of long-circulating accounts about a real seat of government. No incident is being asserted, and no individual is named or quoted.