Another short retelling of one of my paranormal experiences working the night shift in a then-new Ortigas structure in Pasig City in the Philippines. This is told in both English and Tagalog separately.
This is featured by one of my favorite narrato...
This happened February 2012 when I worked as an IT contractor. My team and I (five in all) worked the night shift to prepare a call center's ops floor in the penthouse of a new Ortigas tower building near the Meralco head office building in Pasig City. Just so you know, Meralco is the largest electricity provider in the country, while Pasig City is a business district a couple of cities away from our capital city — Manila.
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It was a rush job because we needed to meet the deadline for the infrastructure (layout and patching) in time for that call center's scheduled opening.
In the middle of working, the lone security guard called our attention and started a headcount. This was unusual as head counting is normally done at the start and at the end of the shift. It was about 2:30AM. He also checked if all of us wore our uniform (my team wore our light blue shirt uniform, while the guard wore a white uniform). The guard grew pale after realizing the count to be accurate, and he explained why.
He was reviewing the CCTV footage from a few minutes before, and at the 2:12AM timestamp he noticed one of our team members exit the men's room as another guy entered it. The other guy looked like a construction worker (complete with hard hat, jeans, and red shirt uniform).
They passed by each other as if nothing happened; the other guy never came out.
The guard asked everyone to help review all CCTV angles, but we never did see the person again. He never left through the single main access door, nor the elevator. We swept the whole area, but came up empty-handed. Soon we had to check the men's room again since he may still be in there. There were no exits from there, and there were six of us. So he was boxed in.
We all came in, each of us opening the stalls.
The men's room was empty. There was no one in there. Absolutely no one at all.
My teammate claimed not to have passed by anyone on his way out from the men's room. He just remembered feeling a cold spot along the corridor as he went out but dismissed it despite knowing there was no AC.
Another weird thing about the footage was this: the area between where the person's neck and the part where his face was supposed to be was completely black. The video was consistent in this. No matter how many times we played it back both in regular speed and slow mo, it was impossible to ID the person.
Security was tight in the area, as only the guard carried the lone proximity card to open the main access door to the elevator hall. Contractors like us weren't allowed to have our own proxy cards, or go anywhere without permission.
We tried to get a copy of the video, but the management held on to it citing "security issues".
The same guard told us the story of who he believed the person was; Lando was one of the construction workers that originally worked on the site 5 months prior. He jumped out the balcony of the then unfinished men's room after learning his wife was cheating on him. The lover turned out to be one of Lando's closest friends. Even Lando's firstborn wasn't his own.
The guard was on-duty the day that happened, and he remembered Lando's red shirt because he was the one who reported the incident to the police.
Apparently, it was the third time he saw via CCTV the person walking around the floor — not counting the times he saw him out of the corner of his eyes. What happened the night we were there was unbearable for him and he finally spilled the beans.
Needless to say, after that night we implemented a buddy system every time someone needed to separate from the group (CR, setup the server and UPS room, etc.). Nothing major happened after that.
The ominous feeling in that work area was sometimes too much... that feeling that there was always someone else around... the aura of mixed anger, sadness and despair. Our project ended soon, which was good for me since I wanted to just get the hell out of there.
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