Bahay na Pula

San Ildefonso, Bulacan · Filippinerna · Haunted house

Weeping and footsteps are said to carry from the red house's windows — echoes of the hundred women held captive there in 1944.

Locals tell of weeping, footsteps and figures in the windows of Bahay na Pula, the red house of Bulacan. The stories have a terribly concrete foundation: in November 1944, after the massacre in the village of Mapaniqui, Japanese troops turned the house into a garrison. The men were killed, and more than a hundred women and girls were held captive and systematically abused in its rooms.

The house was built in 1929 as the main residence of the Ilusorio family hacienda and became, after the war, a place no one wanted to approach. The survivors, known as the Malaya Lolas, fought for decades for redress. The house was partly dismantled in 2016; today mostly the frame and the old trees remain — but the belief that it never fell silent has stayed.

FAQ

Hvor ligger Bahay na Pula?

Bahay na Pula ligger i San Ildefonso, Bulacan, Filippinerna.