Monday, October 31, 2011

Close encounters with elementals



By 
rer

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The teenage boy had not eaten for days yet four grown men and his own mother could hardly subdue him as he reacted violently to the presence of Fr. Armand Tangi of the Society of St. Paul.
“He had menacing eyes, was screaming words I could not understand, and it seemed that he would spew vomit on me anytime. I was just waiting for it to happen,” the priest said, recalling a familiar scene in the movie “The Exorcist.”
The boy and his family live in a bucolic Central Luzon community, in a compound with a ladies’ accessoriesfactory and residences of its owner and his workers. A clear brook runs through the leafy estate.
It was an idyllic place until strange sightings of a “white lady” were reported, the boy exhibited a bizarre behavior and the factory owner’s niece suddenly fell ill and became practically paralyzed.
The strange happenings, manifestations of so-called “elementals,” or nature spirits, gravitating in rivers andtrees, prompted the businessman to call a psychic, who said the area used to be a Japanese garrison where beheadings occurred during World War II.
“I was told by the businessman that the psychic heard constant screams of terror. And that he also felt that there was also a lot of tension and chaos,” Tangi said.
Admitting he could not deal with the spirits, the psychic advised the businessman to call an exorcist-priest.
It was midmorning when the Makati-based Tangi arrived at the compound in early September. He was immediately taken to a kiosk to see the boy.
“He looked like a normal boy, of medium built and about 5’8” in height. But he looked at me in a very intimidating way. I was actually scared of him,” Tangi said.
The priest was convinced it was a case of demonic possession and decided to say Mass at the kiosk.
Boy goes wild
Every now and then, the boy would mutter something incomprehensible but was generally subdued. But when Tangi raised the host during the Consecration, the boy went bananas, threw off those holding him, screamed at the priest, and spewed vomit.
“It gives me goose bumps just to remember what happened,” Tangi said.
After the Mass, the priest approached the boy and recited deliverance prayers, especially those addressed to St. Michael, the archangel who defeated Lucifer, and St. Gabriel, the Prince of the Heavenly Army tasked with leading angels in the final battle against evil spirits.
Tangi could not perform an exorcism because it requires permission from the bishop. Also, an exorcist priest and his prayer warriors, or assistants, would have to fast and recite special prayers for protection before they can face the possessed.
After Tangi and the locals prayed over the boy, the priest sprinkled holy water on him and anointed the boy with blessed oil.
“At that time, I felt it was not a really strong demon. After the anointing, the boy already smiled and began eating. I just hope that he would not have a relapse because when that happens, the retaliating demon usually becomes stronger,” Tangi noted.
Mummy in bed
Later, the priest was led to the businessman’s ailing niece. She was in crutches in a small, windowless room. He was shocked to see what he thought was a man wrapped in black bandage “like a mummy” lying on her bed.
“His neck was bent backward but his eyes were wide open and staring at me,” the priest recalled. “I looked back at my companions and apparently, they did not see it because they were not reacting,” Tangi said. He turned to the bed and the vision was gone.
“The room was very dark, there were absolutely no openings. And it felt very eerie just being there,” the priest said. Workers complain they feel “something unusual” whenever they are near the girl’s quarters.
Fr. Jose Francisco Syquia, in his book “Exorcism: Encounters with the Paranormal and the Occult,” notes that evil spirits prefer “areas which are smelly and dirty like toilets, garbage areas, and the like.”
Syquia, director of the Office of Exorcism of the Archdiocese of Manila, says dark rooms without blessed objects like that occupied by the girl attract sinister forces.
Snake in the trees
Tangi recalled the niece’s room was in total disarray. “There was stuff everywhere, it was so chaotic. She said that when she came in at night, she was always too tired to pick anything up,” the priest noted.
The businessman told Tangi that his niece used to be healthy, but she suddenly suffered a series of illnesses that doctors could not explain and that left her practically paralyzed.
Tangi suspects that someone else was staying in the room and whoever it was might have caused her disability. After blessing the room, he told the niece to clean up, put more lights and paint the place white.
The priest also visited the teenager’s house in an area that was well-isolated from other factory residences and that was encircled by old trees.
Old-timers claim a giant snake lives nearby but they do not dare kill it, believing “it is the real owner of the property.” The residents fear that the snake’s spirit might haunt them if they kill it.
Tangi did not see any giant snake in the boy’s house.
“But it was unusually hot inside. And as I was sprinkling holy water and my companions were reciting Marian prayers, I heard hissing sounds. It was hard to tell where they were coming from,” he said.
Spirits could strike again
Tangi said residents told him they had “eerie feelings” whenever they walk around the property. One old man told the priest that he normally saw a “lady in white” at night in the area.
The priest also stopped at the house of the businessman. He thought there were no evil spirits there. “It was airy because there were lots of windows.  It was well-lighted,” the priest remembered.
While Tangi had not heard again from the owner, he remained concerned.
“There are lots of trees in the property and there is also a brook where the residents catch fish from. It may be possible that elementals or nature spirits living in the trees or the water were responsible for the manifestations,” he said.
The priest fears these spirits can strike again.

Centralized gov’t payroll exorcises ‘ghosts’



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MALACAÑANG has called in the ghostbusters to rid the government books of fund-sucking phantom personnel and spectral spending, a move that could well result in “billions of pesos in savings,” according to Budget Secretary Florencio B. Abad.
According to Abad, one of the ways the ghosts can be busted is by cutting short the money trail when making salary payments, mainly through a centralized payroll system for the national government.
“By the end of next year, employees of the executive branch, including policemen and soldiers, will receive their salaries in their bank accounts directly from the Treasury,” he told reporters and editors at dinner at the Inquirer on Thursday night.
The budget chief said this will address fund leakage problems related to compensation, including the nonremittance of premiums to the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), the state-run pension fund for government workers.
According to Department of Budget and Management (DBM) data, the national government has almost a million employees.
“Before this and for the longest time, the DBM had no record of how many employees we are paying,” said Abad.
AFP, PNP cooperating
Abad said the government was finally able to make the shift in the way state salaries are paid out largely because it was finally able to get the cooperation of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP).
The biggest chunk of the government’s workforce is in the Department of Education (DepEd) at about 579,000, but data on DepEd is relatively easy to get hold of compared to that of the uniformed services, said Abad.
There are currently 146,000 people working for the PNP and 125,000 for the AFP.
According to Abad, the PNP and the AFP had previously “refused to provide us data so we could not put up a government manpower inventory system that we badly need.”
“Because of that, salaries come through each agency, but we want to change that,” he said.
Instead of the current system, the DBM will just authorize the release of salary funds and the agencies will only have to prepare the payroll, he said.
“We will work with the Civil Service Commission, Bureau of Internal Revenue and GSIS to come up with a single roster of employees. That way we can check if the numbers add up,” Abad said.
“We can save potentially billions of pesos and put an end to ghost employees,” the budget secretary said.
Cashless procurement
He said the government will also be pilot-testing a cashless procurement system where the AFP will use debit cards when purchasing supplies.
The debit cards, which may be issued to a responsible officer, will come with a set list of authorized items for purchase aside from the authorized amount of credit.
“We will do this with the AFP and the Commission on Audit,” Abad said.
He said this will address the long-tolerated practice of “converting” the use of funds, which thrives in the current system where expenses are covered by cash advances.
“With that system that covered 46 percent of military spending, we don’t know where the money comes from and where it goes,” Abad said.
Gov’t supply depots
“This time, we will be using government-run supply depots,” he said.
This has been made possible with Administrative Order No. 17 issued last July, which directs the use of the government procurement service and electronic procurement system.
Abad said the DepEd is already using the depots which are scattered in the regions to buy teaching supplies.
The Army also now buys soldier’s boots from such depots, he said.
“With this system, there is no need for bidding because you are purchasing from the government itself at prices that are 39 percent less (than from private-sector suppliers),” he said.
“More importantly, government officials’ need to hold money will be less and less,” he added.