The waters surrounding Romblon province in the central Philippines have earned the name "Romblon Triangle" — a stretch of sea that has been the site of some of the most catastrophic maritime disasters in Philippine history, and that is haunted by a ghost ship captained by a spectral figure known as "Lolo Among" who is blamed for luring real vessels to their destruction.
The maritime death toll within the Romblon Triangle is staggering. The Japanese battleship Musashi was sunk in the Sibuyan Sea in October 1944, taking over 1,000 sailors to their deaths. The MV Don Juan collided with an oil tanker in 1980, killing over 140 passengers. The MV Doña Paz sank in December 1987 in the worst peacetime maritime disaster in history, killing an estimated 4,386 people. The MV Princess of the Stars capsized during Typhoon Frank in 2008, killing over 800. The concentration of maritime catastrophe in these waters has invited comparison with the Bermuda Triangle.
Lolo Among — "Grandfather Among" — is the captain of a ghost ship that is said to sail these waters, and legend holds him responsible for at least one of these disasters. According to the story surrounding the MV Don Juan collision in 1980, the captain of the Don Juan swerved to avoid a collision with Lolo Among's phantom vessel, and in doing so, steered directly into the path of the oil tanker. The ghost ship, having caused the evasive maneuver that proved fatal, vanished.
Fishermen in the Romblon Triangle report additional phenomena: an orb of light at sea that moves with apparent intelligence, approaching and retreating from fishing boats; unexplained equipment malfunctions during salvage operations for sunken vessels; and the sound of voices calling from the water in areas where no other boats are present.
The Romblon Triangle's supernatural reputation is inseparable from its physical danger — the convergence of strong currents, typhoon paths, and heavy commercial shipping traffic creates conditions where maritime disasters are not merely possible but, over time, inevitable. Lolo Among and his ghost ship may be the Filipino maritime community's way of personifying the sea's hostility — giving a name and a face to the force that takes their ships and their people.