by Paul Ray G. Donaire | November 2, 2022
The end of October brings the celebration of Halloween Day. Another time of the year to highlight stories that feed horrors in the corridors of Silliman University!
Horror tales are no surprise in said institution. Some Sillimanians claim that Katipunan Hall is the scariest place on campus, while others argue that it is Silliman Hall. However, there is one story that might not be widely known but is an interesting one to share. It is about the notorious Orange Man that usually makes an appearance in the SU Elementary School and Home Economics Building. Does most of the student body know about this?
In an interview with the Weekly Sillimanian, Jonan Kitane from the College of Arts and Sciences shared, “There have been many variations to the story of the notorious Orange Man. The most common is that he’s a World War II prisoner that is still looking for a lover. The places that he would usually go to [are] at the Elementary School, specifically the 3rd Floor of the New Building, and at the Junior High School at the Home Economics Building. He would usually show himself to women who are young and beautiful. In the Elementary School, the orange man would first walk by the door of the classroom of where the teacher is. He would do this multiple times until he would finally peep on the window of the door and would just stand there and smile at the teacher inside the room.”
As a country whose tapestry is woven by culture and traditions, the horrors of Filipino mythical creatures, evil spirits, and pamahiin are nothing new to locals. They are present not only throughout the Philippines, but in fact each place usually has its own distinct set of stories.
“It’s a more eerie feeling in the Economics Building of the Junior High School. The Economics Building had two floors. When the Orange Man would announce his presence, the people in the first floor having their class would smell a rotten stench with a mix of Rose stench. Then, maggots would fall down from the second floor. And [upon checking it], nothing [actually happened on] the 2nd floor. This would happen often, even when a class was going on,” he added.
The story of the notorious Orange Man can certainly scare anyone, even men, despite it favoring the opposite gender. As an institution founded in 1901, it is likely that the preconceived identity of the ghost is indeed a WW2 prisoner. We do not know, Orange Man might be imprisoned near or the exact point where the SU Elementary School and Home Economics Building were constructed.
Isn’t it amazing yet terrifying? Seeing how everything is interconnected, and how the past is unable to move forward and thus interrupts the present? This kind of event, in society, is instilled as a continuous recurrence. Our favorite notion, “History repeats itself”; that if ever acceptance and repentance lapse, history is doomed to exist all over again.
Like how we can infer the history of the Orange Man, since he hasn’t found his lover, he is now looking for it with but a twist—a paranormal activity. Perhaps the search for love knows no bounds, doesn’t it? Not even death can stop it.
Wow! Scary 😱