“Bahay na Pula: Ngayon ay hindi na siya nakakatakot, nakakalungkot na.” (“The Red House is no longer a place to fear, it is a place of sadness.”)
A netizen left that comment on a Facebook post with photos showing the lot of the historical Bahay na Pula in San Ildefonso, Bulacan, is now up for sale.
The photos were taken by Ronald Santiago Millan and posted on Facebook group Ancestral Houses of the Philippines (AHP).
Located in the sleepy town of Antayam, Bahay na Pula was owned by the Ilusorio family. During the Japanese occupation, it was used as barracks by the Japanese soldiers.
For decades, the red house was believed to be haunted by the spirits of scores of women who were kidnapped and held as sex slaves by the Japanese military during World War II.
In fact, BBC News is currenlty airing a 30-minute documentary, The Horrors of the Red House, where “Filipina women who were raped by Japanese soldiers during the Second War tell their extraordinary stories.”
Today, it stands in the middle of a 11,013 sqm lot — its walls have crumbled to the ground, its roof held up by a few posts and braces — but its crimson color is still unmistakable.
Coconuts Manila has reached out to the owner of the post for further information and will update this story.
