Inside the Lives of Paranormal Investigators in the Philippines

How do you catch a ghost?

This was a question I brooded over again and again as a child growing up in the Philippines, in a household that deeply believed in the supernatural. My mother insisted that all the women on her side of the family had the sixth sense, and that I must have inherited even a faint sense of clairvoyance. She had grown up seeing the ghost of a woman living in the giant acacia tree next to her bedroom window. Her older sister began feeling dark presences whenever she walked into unfamiliar places. In comparison, her younger sister once told me that she’d watched a deep, angry crack snake its way along the ceiling of her dormitory room, acting like a portal for the spirits that continued to follow her long after the crack was fixed.

I possessed less of a second sight and more of an obsession with trying to catch one of the spirits of my family’s stories. I watched horror movies voraciously because a disapproving tita had once told me that consuming horror stories was a sure way to invite the demons in. I refused to whisper “Tabi po” when exploring the forests of rural Cebu, in the hopes that a spirit would follow me home. I made several attempts at opening a third eye, having once read in an edition of True Philippine Ghost Stories that the only way to do this was by furiously chanting “Ohm” and turning your gaze towards the afterlife. 

None of my foolhardy attempts at making contact with ghosts bore any fruit. However, for many across the Philippines, the chase of the supernatural is a serious pursuit. The history of our country is long and tragic, and, as many aspiring and seasoned paranormal investigators have discovered, multiple hotspots dot the archipelago. In Metro Manila alone, there are stories of a White Lady haunting Balete Drive, of tortured soldiers trapped in Fort Santiago, and of lonely ghosts haunting the campuses of the University Belt. Our folklore is filled with even more stories of manananggals’ upper bodies roaming the night sky, kapre standing watch by their chosen trees, and engkanto walking among us to stir up trouble.

Have No Fear

“Ayaw’g ka hadlok sa mga spirit,” Elgie Oberes, the paranormal investigator behind the group Cebu Ghost Hunters International, told me during an interview [“Don’t be scared of the spirits.”]. “What if you were the spirit and you were trying to communicate?”

Oberes, like many Filipinos across the country, grew up closely intertwined with the supernatural. His childhood home in Zamboanga City, he insists, stood next to a haunted grove of mango trees, filled with spirits that would spill over into his world. His parents once heard a voice eerily similar to his call out, “Mommy, I’m home!” when Oberes himself wasn’t in the house: he believes this to be the work of a doppelganger. 

“I started [as a paranormal investigator] because of my curiosity about the afterlife,” said Oberes. “When my father died… well, I wanted to communicate with him. Nagsige ko’g study ug research for lima ka tuig. Pero unya, dili man pwede o maayong makig-communicate ka sa imong mga hinigugma, kay basin makasummon ka’g demonyo, noh?” [“I studied and researched for five years. But I learned that it’s not right to try to communicate with your loved ones, because what if you accidentally summon a demon, right?”]

Oberes claims to possess a spiritual sense, one step removed from the more conventional clairvoyance that many in his line of work profess. “My third eye isn’t completely open, but I can sense spirits sa [corners],” said Oberes. He has since used this sense to explore various supernatural hotspots. With his equipment of choice in hand — which is usually an EMF (Electromagnetic Field) reader, a spirit box that allows spirits to communicate via radio frequencies, and a music box that emits a clear tone when a spirit crosses its beam — Oberes spends his nights documenting activity in different haunted spots, particularly within Cebu, such as the Calamba Cemetery, an abandoned hotel in Toledo, and the allegedly active Lapu-Lapu Cave.

Oberes’ investigations range from him speaking with unhappy spirits trapped in abandoned buildings around Cebu to making contact with demonic entities in places like the infamous Diplomat Hotel in Baguio. Its stories of restless World War II soldiers, headless nuns, and photographed apparitions have become so embedded in paranormal pop culture that the hotel was featured on Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho in 2016. 

“It’s legit: didto jud ko naka-experience og kuyaw na haunting,” confirmed Oberes. “The entities there are dominant, and murag demonic spirits sila. The demonic ones control the spirits because of the brutality na nahitabo sa ilaha.” [“It’s legit: that was where I experienced a real, terrifying haunting. The entities there are dominant, and they seem to be demonic spirits. The demonic ones control the spirits because of the brutality that was inflicted on them.”]

All of Oberes’ investigations are filmed and posted on his YouTube channel and social media platforms. 

When asked what his goals are on these paranormal investigations, Oberes argues that they are more educational and helpful in purpose. “I want to help the spirit to pass to the light,” said Oberes. “But I also want to educate people, and to coach ang mga paranormal enthusiasts. I want to teach atuang history sa atuang lugar, kultura — everywhere, there are spirits, especially diri sa Pilipinas. Kay nagikan naman ta sa mga colonized eras… so naay gyud mga spirits diri.”

[“But I also want to educate people, and to coach paranormal enthusiasts. I want to teach the history of our place, our culture — everywhere, there are spirits, especially here in the Philippines. It’s because we’ve gone through so many colonized eras… there has to be spirits here.”]

Touch of Light

While the local paranormal investigation community has steadily grown across the country, the Philippines has also attracted the attention of aspiring enthusiasts from abroad. 

One such investigator is Ramon Miles, who introduces himself to me as an international psychic medium from the United Kingdom. “This is my destiny,” Miles immediately told me when I asked him about his paranormal investigation work. “I’ve seen and helped spirits in England, Wales, Canada, Malta, Spain, and the Caribbean: but my best experiences by far have been in the Philippines.” 

Miles recalls how one particular otherworldly encounter guided him towards pursuing paranormal investigation as a career. “Seven years ago, I was in Malta helping remove some unwanted spirits from a friend’s house,” said Miles. “As I walked in through the front door of his room, I saw a lady, dressed in white, hovering three to four feet off the ground. She was dressed in a white gown from head to toe. An amazing glow came from her apparition. My friend asked, ‘Oh, can you remove the spirit?’ And I told him, ‘No, this lady protects you.’ She needs to stay here. And so we kept walking up into the house.”

“We were trying to figure out what to do about this other spirit that was keeping their children awake, when, all of a sudden, I saw the Archangel Michael,” said Miles. “Now, I’ve seen Archangel Michael seven times. In fact, I keep him with me.” At this point in the interview, Miles rolled up his sleeve to reveal a large, detailed tattoo of the Biblical angel. “In Malta, he started coming towards me. And then he walked downstairs back to the lady in white. And that was when I realized that that magnificent lady was Mama Mary.”

“It’s been a long time since I’ve talked about this event,” said Miles, visibly tearing up at the memory. He paused and needed a minute to collect himself before we continued our interview. “I realized that Mama Mary had shown herself to me for a reason. I saw her as clear as I see you now. Since that day, I knew that she had a mission for me. I now know that she was guiding me here to Manila, to the Philippines, to do my part in guiding spirits to the light.” 

Since recently relocating to the Philippines, Miles has teamed up with several local paranormal investigators to realize his destiny. Although he was first connected with Oberes’ group, Cebu Ghost Hunters International, he has since mainly collaborated with internet personality Agassi Ching, who partners with Miles to document and create content on their investigations of haunted sites across the country. “I’m just a regular guy,” Ching jokes during our interview. “I feel what everyone else can feel, and so people can relate to me. Before, I’d felt uneasy about going through with certain investigations. But now with [Miles], even if I feel uneasy, he takes care of us.”

Ching and Miles’ YouTube videos showcasing their investigations have racked up an impressive number of views, with their first-ever collaboration. In the video,  they explore the abandoned impounding center in Mandaue, Cebu. It currently has 1.6 million views.

But when asked about whether or not fame is part of his reason for creating content on his paranormal cases, Miles simply says that it is a by-product of his line of work. “For me, the fame that I’m getting now is just a consequence of what we do,” said Miles. “We’re very good at what we do. And if it means that more people watch our videos and become more knowledgeable about the spirit world… well, then I’ll know I’ve been a help.”