Scary stories from Loakan Road

MY HIGH school gang, UB Science High Class ’74, is a group that meets once or twice a year – sometimes more often – with some semblance of regularity.

Often, we get together when one or other of us blows into town from foreign parts. Last (when?) our classmate Abigail Capuyan (Tauli) was in from the US to see her daughter get married. Naturally, Batch ’74 met for a reunion.

It was for supper at Barrio Fiesta. I hardly ever remember what we eat at these gatherings. I think it’s because we’re all talking so much and at a mile a minute. Something I do remember from that night we got together for Abby was a number of “ghost” stories going around the table, about Loakan Road. You know, that stretch of road that seems to be, at night, a scene straight out of Hansel and Gretel.

Emil Ruff recounted that, “In 2001, two incidents occurred within 30 meters of each other on John Hay Road a.k.a Loakan Road.

“In the first incident, during typhoon Feria, a mudslide swept four vehicles off the road in the vicinity of the present John Hay water treatment plant, which is also the former site of Camp John Hay's "ice plant," a very eerie place which housed a stone building which we were reminded of when we used to see the computer game "Silent Hill" -- fog and all. If memory serves, there were four deaths.

“That same year, a bus from the mining areas crashed into the "tree which could not be cut" (this really old tree near what is now Forest House). The steel bumper of this bus with no sides pierced into the middle of the tree's trunk, eventually killing this tree which had what looked like a nest on its crown, which a seer said was home to a beast. In this second mishap of that Feria year, the driver perished upon impact.

“Having lived in Loakan since 1967, many stories of the “Ladies of Loakan” -- there seem to be three -- have been topics of fireside exchanges, ghost hunts, mysterious flat tires and supposed blood on the road in between the two cemeteries alongside Loakan Road, ghosts running alongside vehicles, something white crossing the treetops over from the Voice of America compound/camping area into the Forestry compound and uninvited “Lady" passengers in cars driving through Loakan Road.

“In 2002, one rainy evening driving home at past seven, I saw a young man in his early twenties or late teens waving at me to stop. He was drenched and his face looked bloodied and he was in the middle of the road at the spot where aforementioned mudslide happened. The following day, I was sharing the story of this weird event of the previous night with a passing acquaintance who rented a room in Upper Scout Barrio who then told me, "Tumayo ang balahibo ko sa storya mo kasi hinarang na rin ako dati at may iba ding taga amin na nakaranas nang nagpapakitang duguan.”

“Such testimonials as these come mostly from taxi drivers who ply the route.

I have another story from my Mom, who moved to Baguio in 1955 and lived initially in Fort del Pilar. Her story is about the big tree mentioned earlier. The drivers used to say that after bringing cadets back to PMA they would see a campfire below this tree, with seven of more Americans around it.”

(to be continued – If you have any scary stories about Loakan Road, email them to me – lindagracexc@gmail.com)