Mount Pico de Loro in Ternate, Cavite — named for its distinctive parrot-beak rock formation — is one of the most popular hiking destinations near Metro Manila. But the mountain's accessible trails and rewarding summit views come with a wartime history that surfaces after dark, when the spirits of Japanese and American soldiers resume the fighting that ended over eighty years ago.
In 1945, as American forces advanced south from Manila toward the Bataan Peninsula, the Japanese established defensive positions along the mountain ridges of southern Cavite and Bataan. Mount Pico de Loro, with its commanding views of Manila Bay and the surrounding lowlands, became part of this defensive line. The fighting that swept across the mountain was intense, with both sides taking significant casualties in the rugged terrain.
Hikers who camp overnight on the mountain or who descend via the trail after sunset report encounters with soldiers from both armies. The apparitions appear in period-accurate uniforms — American GIs in olive drab and Japanese soldiers in the lighter khaki of the Imperial Army — and they are seen moving through the forest with military purpose, as if continuing to execute patrol routes and defensive positions. Some hikers describe hearing the sounds of combat: gunfire, shouted commands, and the crash of mortar rounds, all emanating from sections of the mountain where no other hikers are present.
The mountain's proximity to Metro Manila means that thousands of weekend hikers traverse its trails annually, and the volume of overnight witnesses has produced a substantial body of consistent testimony. The soldier ghosts of Pico de Loro do not interact with the living — they are purely residual, replaying the movements and actions of their final deployment on a mountain that has since been reclaimed by forest and recreation but that, in the spiritual dimension, remains a battlefield.