Urban Legends

The White Lady and Haunted Tree in Loakan Road

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Did you know that there was another white lady aside in the Balete Drive?

About

“Club” John Hay has closed its entrance in front of Nevada Square and is now accessible from only two entry points, one through Baguio Country Club and one via Loakan Road, the more popular gate. Taking the Loakan entrance from Military Cut-off Road, the motorist will notice that in front of Hotel Veneracion the road seems to be a lane wider, but only for about five meters and then shrinks back to its usual two-lane width. In truth, there once stood an allegedly enchanted acacia tree about two meters in diameter right smack in the middle of the road. 

In the 1950’s when the plans were laid out to construct a road connecting Kennon Road’s Camp 7 to the city, the tree was right smack in the middle of the proposed route. The solution was simple: bulldoze the tree. It is said that all efforts to uproot the tree resulted in the 'death or serious illnesses of those involved. So big was the scare surrounding the circumstances workers befell in their previous attempts that the road was widened and built AROUND the mysterious obstacle. Needless to say, that poorly lit portion of Loakan Road yielded its own set of vehicular accidents often times claiming lives, even though the Baguio General Hospital was less than a kilometer away. 

In the 1980’s, workers brave enough to put public service before their fear painted the base of the tree with yellow luminous paint to warn motorists. That small and seemingly harmless task led to severe illness for the poor men who are said to have relocated and no longer reside in Benguet Province. Sometime in 2001, the tree just “died” after occupying that spot for what appears to be hundreds of years. In 2002, the “Loakan Tree” was finally destroyed. 

Legend

[Taken from Internet:]

There are many mysterious happenings surrounding Loakan. A tree in the middle of the road rumored to inexplicably cause death or illness to whosoever attempts to cut it down. A ghostly figure wanders the lonely road. Wails are heard from the ruins of two infrastructures leveled by the 1990 killer quake. But the most famous is the Lady in White. 

Some say she’s the ghost of a nurse raped and murdered by her cabbie. Her body was supposedly dumped in the nearby woods. Now, her restless spirit is usually seen waving at the side of the street. Whether you stop to pick her up or not, she hitches a ride in the backseat and then vanishes when you either pass the second cemetery or reach the city. For this reason, cab drivers avoid this road after dark. 

A load of bull? Yep. That’s what I thought, too. The eerily quiet, often fog-covered road had no street lights and had dense woods on either side. It’s enough to give any sane human the shivers, but not me. When we relocated to Pinesville, a subdivision at the end of Loakan Road, my skepticism thickly coated me from any feeling of dread. And after 3 months of living there and still no sight of the famous white lady I began theorizing that the story was promulgated by cab drivers to justify their taking the EPZA detour, hence making a higher fare payup. 

But a strange thing happened in September 2001. It was raining. My Mom, Aunt and I were on our way home. We were having quite a hard time driving because the car’s wipers and the air-conditioning had given out. We had to roll our windows down to prevent steaming up the windshield. Still, it was so difficult trying to see through the rain and fog, not to mention the growing darkness. It was about 6:00pm. There were no other vehicles on the road that we could’ve followed. On top of that, my Aunt started yakking on and on about something or other. And Loakan is soooo loooooong. 

Somewhere near the middle of Loakan Road, it dips and then rises again over a hill. The car is ancient so my Mom usually speeds up so she has enough ‘oomph’ to get her over the top. As we neared the part where the road descends, something in the distance caught the beam of the headlights. One of the painted white stripes on the road stood up and slowly formed into a human shape! I couldn’t tell if it was male or female. All I could see was a white human – definitely human figure standing in the middle of the road! It began to walk back and forth across the street! During this time, I noticed my Mom slowing to a crawl instead of accelerating. I knew she saw it, too and slowed down so she wouldn’t hit the moving apparition. 

When our car was about 4 feet away from the white specter, it laid down and became a painted stripe again. All throughout the happening my Mom and I didn’t say a word. Hell, I didn’t even breathe! My heart was thumping so fast. My aunt, however, was oblivious. She was still talking. After a while I said, “What was that?” My Mom turned around, her eyes big as she said, “You saw it, too? An all-white woman with an umbrella?” I was surprised that she saw it clearly. She added other details like black hair that covered her face and an old-fashioned long gown. 

Was it a ghost? Or just a weird image created by the fog and headlights? Whatever it was, it changed my view of ghosts and spirits. I now believe that even if you avoid them, it doesn’t mean that they would leave you alone.

The Lady in White

Baguio taxi drivers tell the story about this woman, (some say it is a white lady), who would walk to the middle of the street to stop a passing vehicle in Outlook Drive near the area of the former Hyatt Terraces. Naturally, a driver would stop to avoid hitting her. She would then ask to be brought to Mines View Park, but would disappear before getting there. 

Well, the story goes that there was this brave macho driver who refused to be pressured into believing the story. One night, he passed by the area and, soon enough, THERE WAS THIS WOMAN IN WHITE FLAGGING HIM TO STOP! 

He swerved his cab and did his best to avoid running over the woman and drove on. All the while he kept saying to himself, “This is not true… it is just my imagination…” When he looked at his rearview mirror to find out what happened to the woman, he was shocked to see the woman already seated behind in the back and SHE WAS STARING ANGRILY AT HIM WITH BLOODSHOT EYES! 

Again he told himself “This is not happening… this is not true...” and stepped hard on the accelerator. But his car wouldn’t accelerate. It just moved ever so slowly. He shifted gears but still his car maintained a slow pace. Momentarily, he focused his attention on the gearshift of his car, shifting again and again while revving up the motor. HE LOOKED BACK AT HIS REARVIEW MIRROR AND FOUND HER GONE! 

He even turned around to look and truly, she was no longer there. But as he sighed in relief and faced the road once more, SHE WAS ON TOP OF THE HOOD OF HIS CAR WITH HER FACE PRESSED AGAINST THE WINDSHIELD! This time, she had an evil smile on her face. 

They say some other taxi driver found him early the next morning near the Baguio Country Club, still seated in his cab, his hair had all turned white, shaking and blabbering, “It is true… it is true…” They say he is now in the mental hospital.