Camp John Hay, the sprawling former American military rest and recreation facility in Baguio City, contains a forested area known by the grimly matter-of-fact name "Murder Woods" — so called because it served as an execution site during both the American colonial period and the Japanese occupation. The woods carry the accumulated spiritual weight of decades of killings, and the ghosts that inhabit them are among the most feared in the Cordillera region.
During the American period (1903-1941), Camp John Hay served as a hill station retreat for American military personnel and colonial officials. The wooded ravines at the camp's periphery were used for the discreet disposal of bodies — executed criminals, political prisoners, and soldiers who had been court-martialed. When the Japanese captured Baguio in December 1941, they converted Camp John Hay into their own military headquarters for northern Luzon, and the Murder Woods took on a new and more terrible purpose.
The Japanese used the same ravines for the execution of Filipino guerrillas, suspected spies, and American prisoners of war. Mass graves were dug beneath the pine trees, and the executions continued until American forces recaptured Baguio in April 1945. When the camp was reestablished as an American facility after the war, soldiers reported encountering apparitions in the Murder Woods — figures standing among the trees who vanished when approached, the sound of gunshots where no weapons were being fired, and the overwhelming scent of decomposition in areas where no physical remains could be found.
Today Camp John Hay operates as a commercial and tourism estate, but the Murder Woods remain largely undeveloped — a shadowy pine grove that tourists are warned to avoid after dark. Security personnel who patrol the area report seeing figures in both American and Japanese military uniforms, sometimes in groups, standing silently among the trees as if waiting for an order that will never come.