I was a minute into my room at the Corregidor Inn, having gone for a walk to the Middleside Barracks when the tranvia’s bell rang thrice; it was time for the Corregidor Night Tour.

The island was starting to get dark as we boarded the tram that would take us to Corregidor’s lesser-known locations. This was evident with the number of visitors who signed up for the night tour, which were less than ten people on a single tram versus the hordes that toured the island earlier in the day.
 
The air was cold as our tram slowly made its way on the empty winding roads of The Rock. On our left, the climbing hills of the island, to our right the majestic view of Manila Bay as the sky slowly dimmed down.

We turned left from the road into an uphill path. This was hardly a road; it was small, unpaved and overgrown on both sides by trees and shrubs.

After a few minutes, abandoned buildings appeared on our views. Our guide informed us that the path we were actually traversing was formerly laden with tracks for the tram back in the Second World War and the decaying building that was already on its way to be swallowed by the jungle was the glorified 7-11’s of the soldiers stationed at Corregidor.

It was a silent ride except for our guide rattling off a few facts now and then about the places we passed by, no one was talking much. And after a while, we drove into a clearing with a looming skeleton of a building in its center. The sky was darkening and the wind felt colder than usual.

We have arrived at Corregidor’s old haunted hospital.
The crumbling infirmary was originally designed in a shape of a cross so enemy planes can clearly see what the structure is and avoid bombing it. But since the Japanese did not sign up to the Geneva Convention, which prohibits destruction of medical facilities during times of war, they freely bombed it to high heavens.

We explored the four arms of the hospital with our guide leading us through its hallways and gutted interiors. From a room where imprisoned Muslim soldiers left their writings on the walls before being massacred during the Marcos regime (Jabidah Massacre), to a part where a banyan tree was slowly eating its way through the structure, to the hospital’s forebodingly dark morgue which no one dared enter.  

The sun was getting already pretty low on the horizon and we really didn’t fancy staying there as darkness crept down the whole island.

Oh, and did I mention that this is the place that visitors do their ghost hunting during the Halloween? Hands down, this is definitely the creepiest place on Corregidor in my book.

Corregidor Sun Cruises Tour
02-5275555 | 02-8346857
corregidortours@suncruises.com.ph
www.corregidorphilippines.com
Corregidor Night Tour | P150.00 per person
Available for Overnighters Only