I know of two "haunted" trees in Asingan, situated close to each other and located within the same area: close to the Asingan cemetery. One was a bread fruit tree locally called a PAKAK; the other is a very tall stately tree called a BANGAR by locals.
The bread fruit tree may not be there anymore but it is also in front of the Municipal cemetery in Asingan. In the 50s when I was still in Gr. 5 at the Dupac Intermediate School, this tree was in the middle of the garden cultivated by the Gr. 5 students. We spent a few hours everyday tending to an assigned patch of land in that area just in front of the cemetry. For some reasons, I hated this subject. First, we have to work under a blazing sun like prisoners. Then our teacher was a mean one whose punishment to lazy or careless students is a torture called ARIMPOYOT.
This sado masochistic punishment is to pinch the erring student in a part of the thigh near the crotch. He would dig his thumb and forefinger into the flesh then twist it all the way sometimes up to a 180 degree arc. Some boys pretended it did not hurt, but it did leave a bruise in there and the psychological aftermath would be something to tell the shrink later on in life if you feel like doing the same thing to your kids..
Anyways, back to our story of the haunted tree..
When the vegetables were ready to harvest, they offer an open invitation to the other kids ( or locals ) who would like to have fresh vegetables for nothing. So a few kids would volunteer to spend the night in the garden just to discourage the marauders from plundering the garden. The student must have some good products to show the teacher other wise....I never joined this camping stint although I have my own plot there..It is not compulsary anyway.Besides camping in front of a burial ground is not my idea of a restful night.
The kids who spent some nights guarding the garden were the ones who told us what they saw in the PAKAK tree during certain nights.They claim they saw a big guy ( about 10 ft. tall ), hairy, dark skinned sitting on one of the branches. He would be smoking a tobacco..Just like that. Some say he had no clothes. He is hairy anyway and it is dark. And who would be crazy enough to approach the tree when the creature is there swinging his legs and enjoying his smoke? His local name is PUGOT. Which is also the nickname of our classmates who have dark skins, exceptionally dark skins. And you know how cruel Gr. 5 kids were in teasing each other. Anyway, this what our classmates told us. There was really a PUGOT in the PAKAK tree in front of the CAMPOSANTO.
The tree is not there anymore. When I was a Balikbayan one time and cell phones were not still invented, a telephone outpost was established in the area for Asinganians who had to make a phone call. The area beautified with shrubs and grass. The PAKAK is no longer around.
A good family friend of ours from San Vicente also told me the same thing. She is an Elementary school teacher and she's quite pretty. Pretty enough to attract several male suitors including one pugot.
She said that several times at night, close to midnight, a PUGOT would come to visit her. I don't know if it is the same guy who hung around the PAKAK tree although that would be quite a long way to travel..But hey, PUGOTS have long limbs and they say they could travel as fast as horses. But this lady from San Vicente who is also now in Ontario told me about the nocturnal visits. First she would notice a terrible smell. Then there would be a clanging of the kitchen utensils like CALDEROS like someone is opening and closing them, looking for something to eat. She would go right in there to the kitchen and when she switched on the light, there was nothing there. One time, she swore, she saw a pair of hands on the window ledge. The hands were hairy with long nails. Believe it or not, she said the creature really wanted to check on her as often as he can. Well, I said the least he can do if he would visit a lady should be to take a bath.
The BANGAR tree has been there as far as I remember. It grew within the perimeter of the cemetery near the small road leading to the gate of the Catholic section. The top could hardly be seen from the ground ( at least that is how I remembered it ). My classmates, especially those from Macalong said if one ate the fruit of the tree, it would give him/her a three-day belly ache.
My mom was the one who told me the following story, and it was also related to her by the late Mrs. Divina ( the mother of Atty Ambrosio Divina Jr. ). Atty Divina and my brother were good friends when they were still kids in Asingan. One of their hobbies was hunting with a BB Gun and one day they happened to visit the Bangar tree. Mrs. Divina ( NanaAkiang ) did not know yet that they went under the dreaded tree but she dreamed that a spirit talked with her. The spirit said that he was in the form of a white bird and all of a sudden he/she was chased by two boys with a gun. They were shooting at him/her. The white bird flew to the tree and then it just hid itself in safety.
The next morning Mrs. Divina asked her son if they went to the tree shooting at a white bird.."Yes," said Manong Jun ( his nickname )."How did you know?"
"That bird is not really a bird," said his Mom. "It was a spirit and you almost harmed it!" When Manong Jun told her that he was with my brother, Nana Akiang went to my Mom and told her about the dream..The spirit said " if something happened to me, I do not know what could have happened to your boy and his companion.."
Of course my mom was also worried and when asked, my brother did not lie about it. But she made him promise never to go about again shooting anything near that BANGAR tree..---#
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