Unlike England, Cebu does not have castle ghosts who roam around in steel armor. But Cebu does have its share of historical haunts.

The Casa Gorordo museum staff reports having seen ghostly apparitions while students at the University of the Philippines-Cebu College (UPCC) at Lahug have their own scare stories to tell but both UPCC and Casa Gorordo share a rich (and even tragic) history.

Like most other Cebu school building, the then UP Junior College was used as headquarters by the Japanese forces. For instance, the first floor of the then Cebu Normal School along Jones avenue housed the dreaded kempetai (military police) while the University of San Carlos housed a fighting unit called the Subetai. UP, on the other hand, was used as headquarters by another Japanese fighting unit called the Konobutai.

UP Junior College was, however, more than a troop headquarter. It was also a prison for American civilians and could have been used as execution ground. Cebu's wartime governor, Hilario Abellana, was tried and executed by the japanese on January 15, 1945 either on or near UP grounds. No one knows exactly where he was shot and until now, no one has found his remains.

The historical Gorordo house, now a museum, located at the corner of Lopez Jaena and Ballesteros streets at the Parian district is more than a century old. It was known as the family residence of Cebu's first Filipino bishop, Juan Gorordo.

Although busy with his religious duties, the Bishop intermittently visited the house for as long as a few days at a time. He also died in its master bedroom on December 20, 1934. Surprisingly, however, the museum staff report seeing apparitions, not of the Bishop, but of one of his spinster sisters.

According to the museum staff, this female ghost usually appears sitting at the courtship area in infront of Gorordo's private chapel (which is rather ironic since she was unmarried) at around 3 to 4 p.m. in this time of year (the month of November).

There are many more historically haunted places in Cebu. Some Carcar residents say that the ghost of Leon Kilat (Pantaleon Villegas) still haunts of a Carcar ex-capitan, Timoteo "Tiyoy" Barcenilla. The house, which is still standing, was where the Katipunan leader was stabbed to death on Good Friday based on a plot by some of the town's pro-Spanish elities.

In more ways than one, the present is haunted by the ghosts of the past.