Tag Archives: Balete trees

Balete Drive – Ghost Story

Nationality: Filipino
Age: 51
Occupation: Software Engineer Directing Manager
Residence: Naperville, Illinois
Language: English

Text:

“Me and a couple of my friends were driving along from a late night gig and we’ve had a great fill of drinks but not that intoxicated (as far as I remember). There aren’t a lot of vehicles at this time, especially on local roads, but still decided to take a shortcut just for kicks.

The road was plain and looks maintained enough since it’s a less busier street than most, maybe due to its reputation of having paranormal activities.

Balete Drive has several stories about ghost sightings and ‘white ladies’ haunting passersby, and a big abandoned haunted mansion right in the middle of the stretch. Most of them likely fabricated of course – to keep the mystique going. We’re not full-fledged studs I as I recall but we thought it’ll be fun to test it out while we’re in this state and certainly less inhibited.

Just before we reached the big house, one of my friends unceremoniously said he needed to pee…

We stopped right in front of the worn out hedges bordering the house front yard. It was a bit dilapidated and dark. But he had to pee. And he did. We all did.

As we drove past the house after relieving ourselves, we noticed two headlights following us seemingly out of nowhere. We casually stayed at a constant speed, but the vehicle kept inching closer. We gathered some speed, turned the corner and lost the trailer. We looked at each other and grinned- that was much ado about nothing. We hit another long stretch of road and to our surprise, we ended right back in front of the big house at Balete drive. The headlights turned up again and right back on our tail. This felt weird. We tried to step on a bit and turned the other corner, lost the stalker and relaxed a little.

Things just got weirder – we were right back at the house (what the…) and the lights were back. We were starting to panic, our collective senses restarted, and we were yelling at each other- harassing the driver and redirecting him in all directions. We cant seem to get off this road and always take us back to the same house. What are we to do? Have we been cursed? Are the stories real? The vehicle following us isn’t letting up either. Now they’re honking, the passengers now animated in the other car, signaling for us to stop. What is happening? There’s no way we’re stopping here, not now. Fear has definitely crept in and we’re way past panic. This has gone on at least 5 times now. We sped through the same street and the same house- the facade looking more menacing and creepy each time we see it, slowly dealing us a mortifying feeling of defeat.

With one more rush of adrenaline, we held one last bit of composure and drove straight ahead until we hit a dark narrowing alleyway that seems to swallow us every meter we travel. We finally saw a different exit, merged onto the main road and drove farther from the damned place. The morning sun has started to peep. We can feel a collective sigh of relief until we realized the other vehicle had been on our heels throughout. This startled us and panic reignited inside the car. We discussed our options incoherently but concluded we couldn’t be any worse since we got out of that insanity loop. So we stopped at the next gas station. And the other car followed suit.

Fear has turned to relief, then discomfort and now annoyance. We’re back in the real world now and this unwarranted stalking has got to stop. We decided to confront them. There are 3 of us, all back to our consciousness – to the point where we question if what we witnessed even actually happened. We chalked up the courage to unstrap, picked up some “weapons” and stepped out of the car. We approached the other car as the driver stepped out to greet us. His face is lined up with a mix of dread, exhaustion, and… gratitude? I saw the lady on the passenger side looking like she’s been screaming her eyes out and now just sits in shock staring nowhere. My buddies now also joined me in the huddle as the other guy quivered to say something…

“We’ve been driving around that block for we don’t know how many hours… my girlfriend had just about lost it – I can still hear her trembling voice almost surrendering to the inevitable… until we saw you drive by and stopped at the house. We were reluctant to follow you thinking you may be part of this, but then when you drove past again, we thought you might also be in the same predicament as us. (Again? We saw you trail us as soon as we left the house… what are you talking about?). We tried to let you know that we are also lost and would like to join you… but each time we gained we had to hang back…” – then the guy started to sob. “We had to each time the lady in white following you would turn her head around to look at us… she had a knife or dagger in her hand and seem intent to get to you. We mustered up enough courage to just step on it as soon as you did and followed you all the way through here… and we can’t thank you enough.” And he broke down to his knees in front of us.

My friends and I looked at each other in weary unison – “what lady?” We turned around to find our car… the dagger still lodged at the back of it.”

Context:

The performer was born and raised in the Philippines, and often told stories with his High School friends in lui of not having a one or access to the internet in the 80’s. They heard it from an older male classmate who heard it from another classmate and so on and so forth. The performer tweaked the tale to have it sound like a 1st person narration with the intention of scaring his kids with “stories from his youth.”

Analysis:

Balete Drive is a well-known street in Quezon City because it often features the white lady who is the universsal Filipino depiction of the traditional “white ghost.” Balete Drive is a brilliant tale because it connects the many small islands and spread out diverse regions of the Philippines. The Philippines has withstood colonization and are a group of people who vastly range in appearances. From looking Mestiza to Chinita to Morena to having different dialects, ghost stories such as Balete Drive are an iconic ghost symbol that unifies the Philippines.

Additionally, balete trees are often connoted with spirtual energy as being something either feared or respected. The tale of balete drive serves as a sort of memorate for this sacred perception of balete trees as the more stories such as the one the performer said are told, the greater the fear and veneration for the trees grows. The reputation toward balete trees only increases as more and more people tell and believe in these tales.

The Balete Trees

Intv: “I was hoping I could ask you a little bit about some of your folklore from when you lived in the Philippines.” 

X: “Yeah definitely, have you heard about balete trees?”

Intv: “No I can’t say that I have.”

X: “Oh! Well where I’m from, and I think throughout the Philippines there’s one where, when you enter a place where there may be a spirit or deity or a forest with balete trees you should say ‘tabi tabi po’ (“excuse/pardon me or like move to the side, please”) or else they might hit u with an illness or misfortune”

Intv: “Oh interesting, so are balete trees specifically capable of holding spirits? Or could it be any forest?” 

X: “It can be in any forest, but I believe it has to be a balete tree specifically.” 

Analysis: I think the message of saying “tabi tabi po” can be viewed in two different ways. First as a sign of paying respect to the dead, or as a sign of respect to nature. Perhaps it could be both as it involves a communion of spirits and nature that’s combined to a sort of humble reverence. The Aswang Project, a web service dedicated to preserving Filipino folklore, has this to say in relation to the balete trees. 

“Regardless of physical appearance, trees are quiet noticeably mentioned throughout our own mythology and lore. Some are associated with engkantos and other nature spirits while others play a vital role in the shamanistic/animistic culture of our Babaylan. Perhaps more than just a source of physical materials such as wood, paper and even medicine, trees can also provide impalpable treasures that we must learn to conserve and protect.”

Guzman, Daniel De. “Down the Roots of Mystical and Sacred Trees in Philippine Lore • the Aswang Project.” THE ASWANG PROJECT, 2 Feb. 2022, https://www.aswangproject.com/mystical-sacred-trees-philippines/. 

Balete Drive (Ghost Story/Legend from the Philippines)

Nationality: Filipino - (Chinese)
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: Friday April 22nd, 2016
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin, Tagalog, Hokkien

S is a 21-year-old Filipino woman. She is currently majoring in Business Administration at the University of Southern California. She grew up in the Philippines and therefore identifies as Filipino, however, she also identifies as Chinese. S speaks English, Mandarin, Tagalog and Hokkien, the last being two of many languages specific to the Philippines.

S: There’s a lot of ghost stories from like the Philippines. Like there’s this one street in the Philippines, it’s called Balete Drive.

Me: Can you spell that?

S: B-a-l-e-t-e. Balete. It’s in Manila and ’cause I guess it got it’s name from like all the, ’cause it a kind of tree, so then there’s like a whole bunch of like tree in like that specific street, and no one ever wants to pass through there ’cause it’s just so fricken scary. And they say like in those trees, each specific tree, like there’s like this thing that lives up there and like it smokes and like…

Me: Is there like an actual story that goes with it, or is it just kind of a…

S: I can’t, I’m not exactly sure like what’s the origin, but I just know that there’s just a weird scary creature up there. Yeah, I don’t know, I mean, it’s pretty popular though.

Me: So you just don’t pass on that street?

S: Yeah, we just don’t go though that street. Because it’s too scary. I don’t know. But see that’s the thing, like we have so many ghost stories and just like ghost, like yeah, there’s like too many. There are many different kinds. But like I don’t think you should share that, or like search that, it might freak you out. Like once you start googling and see pictures of it, I don’t think that’s a good idea. Yeah, so maybe not.

S describes a street, Balete Drive, in Manila that is said to be haunted. She says that there are things that live in the Balete trees that are so prominent on the street and that they haunt Balete Drive and they smoke and are generally just scary to think about. It is obvious that she is still scared of this road and that she, even as an adult, will not go walk on that street for fear of the creatures of legend that are said to haunt it. She warns not to go on that street as well as not to even look it up because it would be scary. Even talking about it made her a bit uncomfortable, even though she does not know the origin and the story behind the legend, it still scares her and has a lot of influence on her.