The westbound bus terminal in Barangay Bulua in the Philippines has been in the news lately for a number of recent ghost sightings by the security staff. A witch doctor has reportedly said that the area where the entire Westbound Terminal is situated was also the same place where the city of the “engkanto” (ghosts) was located.
One security man reported seeing a ‘white lady’ watching him from the top of the stairs as he was getting changed. As the woman was smiling at him he was first embarrassed but then went to investigate. He was disturbed when he could find no sign of the woman; she had just vanished into thin air.
Another employee claimed she had seen a ‘floating lady’ at least three times in the building. Normally the ghost appeared near the security monitoring equipment.
Another security man claimed he saw a ghost back in 2003. He said that he was watching the security monitor when a man entered through the main door. He was surprised at this because he had already locked that door. “I got out immediately and approached the man. I asked him why he climbed up the stairs and his purpose and he told me he wanted to rest”. The mysterious man then turned around and left without another word. The security guard rang his colleague downstairs to see if he had seen the man pass by, but the security guard downstairs reported that he had seen nobody enter the building.
The same security man also met up later with a witch doctor in the building. The witch doctor told him that the area where the entire Westbound Terminal is situated was also the same place where the city of the “engkanto” was located. The engkanto are a type of supernatural being that are traditional to the Philippines. They are similar to the Irish faer folk and are usually bad news… The engkanto are supposed to inhabit a ‘balete’ tree (also known as a dakit) and chopping one down is a no no as this will bring death upon you ! One of the employees believes that there was a balete tree at the location of the terminal before it was built.
You can read more about the ghostly goings on here (The English is a bit hairy. I particularly like the ‘quack doctor’) :
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/cag/2005/11/17/oped/stephen.capillas.the.lowdown.html
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/cag/2005/11/16/news/cameraman.tells.own.ghost.story.html
You can read a brief bit about engkantos and balete trees here:
http://library.thinkquest.org/27661/docs/engkanto.htm
Also read about a man who makes his living chopping down dakits:
http://www.geocities.com/rolborr/balete.html
