Halloween Stories

Halloween or that time of the year Filipinos celebrate the “undas” has always been a time of “rituals” for me. When I was young, our whole Leonin clan trooped to the cemetery to visit the family plot where our grand patriarch and matriach were buried. For my cousins and I, it was like another family outing much like our summer vacations. Only, this activity was more like a night time picnic because of all the food, the beach chairs and mats on the grass. But the best part of it all were always the stories.
As my cousins and I grew older, we learned to entertain ourselves without getting lost in the multitude that seemed to occupy every nook and cranny of Loyola Memorial Park in Marikina. We’d use the parked family cars, sit ourselves inside them and tell each other the best horror stories we could come up with. We would re-tell stories told to us by our yayas from their respective provinces. We’d share ghost stories we picked up from school from our classmates. From big black dogs or large sows wearing bakyas, to strange birds tick-ticking in the middle of the night, to the white lady in our family compound and the invisible figure playing our Weinstein piano and running the Singer sewing machine, we’d talk about supernatural experiences and scare the hell out of our much younger cousins. Later on, we decided to give an award to the best horror story told that year. I was the winning story-teller for several years because I managed to collect the scariest tales from friends months before.
Recently, I was taking advantage of the long Halloween weekend by watching horror films and surfing the net for new stories. I came across a blog that featured the scariest places in the Philippines and realized I had been to most of them.
In Metro Manila, Balete Drive in Quezon City has the fabled White Lady that hails down taxicabs or hitches a ride with solo drivers traversing the area. My older brother used to drive around with us younger kids on lazy weekends and he always tries to scare us by passing through that New Manila territory. Other haunted places I remember in my youth are Baguio and Corregidor where we took family vacations. Baguio was notorious for the White Lady of Loakan, the invisible PMA cadets marching in the wee hours of the morning, and the poltergeists of Teachers Camp. And I’m not even talking about the notorious Diplomat Hotel, the Laperal White House, and the ghosts from the 1983 Pines Hotel fire and the big 1990 earthquake.
Corregidor, on the other hand, is also known for its historical significance. Remnants of World War II still prevail over much of the island and compose much of its ghost stories. Like Baguio, it was one of those sites which experienced a lot of bombings and fighting. True enough, ghostly apparitions consist of Filipino, American and Japanese soldiers, priests and nuns, doctors and nurses, as well civilians who all died during the war.
I remember my own experience there years ago. I was busy taking photos as my whole clan toured around the battery areas, the Mile-long barracks, and the Malinta Tunnel itself. At some grassy knoll near the popular flagpole, I just shot a few pictures, trying to capture the green scenery. No one was in my shot, I was sure of it. But when the photos were developed, a few white figures appeared in the distance, like priests or nuns. I showed them to my family but none of them believed me then.
I went to college in UP Los Banos, unaware of its own violent past. I didn’t know why people avoided the Baker Hall (the university gymnasium) late at night, or why the Vanguard officers and cadets really abhor their early morning jogs around Baker’s Field. It was only later when a few classmates who were really “locals” told me about UP Los Banos’ special role in WWII as a war camp. That certainly explains the alleged sightings of Japanese soldiers in the area.
As in any university campus which housed several dormitories, there were a lot of supernatural stories from there, too. From a white lady seen floating across a second-floor window, to a black coffin found lying on the long table at the communal study area, to invisible hurried footsteps on the stairs, each college freshman and dorm intern had to get ready for a unique “greeting” at the start of every semester.
There were also tales of forest creatures whispering from big trees or raining down sand on a passerby, of a student traversing a seemingly “endless” bridge, or of campus stone sculptures coming life and walking about at night, including the College of Agriculture’s symbol “Tao” which depicts a farmer and his carabao.
I, too, had my own share of frightful experiences; from the strange footsteps and knocking at my dorm, to the weird catcalls and shadows at the bridge walking home after a late night study session. But the scariest of all was the eerie moaning I heard right next to my ear while I was studying at my table one Finals week.
Then again, I could compile my own collection of UPLB horror stories perfect for fright nights and weekend scare-fests…but that would entail an entirely new piece.