Dominican Hill, Baguio

In November when the days are short and the night seems endless, stories of hauntings and ghostly apparitions are the popular stories among the circles of conversation. Baguio City would top the list of featured most haunted places.

It was February when with three other friends I visited Baguio to witness its annual flower festival - the Penagbenga. The coldest time in Baguio often falls on this month.

The city of pines - as it is often called because of its tall old pine trees, seems to be blanketed in eternal fog and gloomy semi-darkness caused by the overcast sky. This just made the city on the mountain a perfect setting for good Halloween stories like of those from classic Hollywood horror films which I love watching as I slouch lazily on the sofa.

This was our first time seeing the colorful floats of Penagbenga. We just love the company of one another; we were all exuberant. We planned to visit as many popular places in Baguio as the time permitted - since we were all working, time was a bit tight.

The Diplomat hotel was first in our bucketful of lists.  We agreed to drop other itineraries just to check out the infamous abandoned hotel on a hill.

After paying a short visit to the "Grotto" to pray, we hailed a taxi and asked the driver to drop us at the Dominican Hill. We later found out that the abandoned hotel atop Dominican hill was at the end road of Dominican road where the grotto is also located.

We exchanged a short conversation with the taxi cab driver while inside the cab.  The stirred taxi driver threw his own haunted story of the place. He mentioned the ghastly wail of a woman coming from the inside of the building and an apparition of a spectral lady in a white gown suddenly appearing in the middle of the road during the wee hours of the night. There are hundreds of stories circulating about this ruin. Some stories have been passed down too many times that it became part of an urban legend.

The structure was originally intended to be a vacation and retreat house for the Dominican friars. During the second world war, the building was captured by the Japanese forces and made their headquarters. During this dark page of history that many atrocious acts were committed within its walls which include torture, rape, murder, and decapitation. After the war, the property went into the different owner and was transformed into a hotel/hospital. When the last owner died of heart failure, the building was abandoned and suffered further damage during the 90's earthquake.

The car squealed to a halt. We arrived now at our destination. We were at the very gate of the infamous hotel. I expect to see a rusty gate and a crow perching on a bough of an old tree, but none of these was present. Surveying the area, I noticed that the place has a lot of vegetation - from evergreen trees to marigolds. Still, the eerie air the place breath sent tingles through my spine.

This dark past of the building attracted my curiosity... to be continued