WHEN visitors come up to Baguio, they often mention the presence of ghosts. Do we really have ghosts and roaming spirits in our city? Why, I wonder has this city been called haunted by so many people for a long, long time now? Special houses have been featured as dwellings of spirits, like the famous White House along Leonard Wood Rd. which was used as the setting of a movie with the same title! This house however, now exhibits exquisite bamboo carvings. Whether it’s haunted or not, only the owners and the caretakers can say.
In my readings about Baguio’s history, the only answer I found is in the unfortunate episodes of World War II. The carpet bombing of Baguio during the war of 1941 covered our city with corpses of innocent civilians.
During the war-torn years, many places in Baguio were turned into garrisons and execution centers of the Japanese. The White House was one of them. In fact, Camp John Hay and the Baguio Country Club and also Teachers’ Camp were made offices and headquarters of the Japanese. The old Pines Hotel, now SM Mall, was also used by the Japanese, so that our Filipino guerrillas chased them away in military combat and ambush. Many died among our soldiers and among the Japanese too.
Stories handed down by parents and grandparents include a description of the St. Louis School Center grounds, where many people ran to reach the Cathedral for refuge. Bodies lay across the whole grounds, leaving some children and babies crying. People running for safety would jump over dead bodies because there were so many of them. Perhaps the sisters of the school might have taken some of these orphans into their care during that time. Buildings in Baguio were made garrisons by the Japanese and there they executed most of their prisoners. One of these is along Otek St. Is there something eerie here?
This is part of a story handed down by our grandparents. In the grotto of the Assumption Sisters’ old convent in the former Mt. Mary Hill, people would see once in a while in the late evenings, nuns and priests , each holding a candle and walking in procession around the area. After a while, they would all disappear. This place is adjacent to the SLU gymnasium. It was said that part of the gym area was the execution center of the Japanese. Prisoners there were beheaded and their bones buried in deep excavations. Many say that when the SLU gym was constructed, the laborers unearthed a mass grave of bones and skulls, which were brought to the museum, later to the laboratories for study. Many strange occurrences come about from time to time. One is that a beheaded priest passed by a guard, threw the guard running in panic through a glass door. The glass broke of course and the guard resigned out of fright.
The most common story among Baguio folk is the white lady of Loakan Rd. There used to be a pine tree in the middle of the asphalt road along a curb, where many taxi drivers would be teased by the presence of this woman. Stories say that the white lady was an American mestiza of great beauty who was ravaged and killed by the militant enemy. Some drivers say that a beautiful woman would flag their taxi and get in, but the moment they reach the center of the city, there would be no one seated behind. A lady friend related how she freaked out when, one day as she drove alone towards the city center, she glanced at her rear view mirror and saw a lady in her backseat! Her car went careening but she was able to reach the post office where she stopped and got out of the car.
Visitors who stayed at Teachers’ Camp would talk about the faucet and the shower going on when they were not inside the bathroom. So many stories to tell but whether they are real or not is so difficult to tell. Answers to the fearsome events of course are always prayers to the Almighty. Let’s enjoy Baguio, haunted or not!