White Ladies of Cagayan and Quezon City

The researcher chose Demetrio F. (1968) “The Village: Early Cagayan de Oro in Legend and History.” Mainly, the chapters entitled "Floating Lady in White One” and “A Skeleton Dressed in White” as library resources, and the Lady of Balete Drive as an online resource for further analysis of the folk narratives of Kaperosa. 

The researchers’ motivation for selecting the said materials is mainly for counter-checking narratives said by the anecdotes from the lady of Loakan. Additionally, the varieties of Kaperosa in the Philippines is not an isolated story but one experienced by many locals across the country. Essentially, the existence of the Kaperosa as folk narratives motivated the researcher to analyse the functions and mythemes that make the White Lady part and parcel of Philippine culture and mythology.

Below is the excerpt from Demtrio's (1968) book detailing the experiences of locals entitled  “A Skeleton Lady Dressed in White” (March 30, 1967).

“The informant’s friend caught up with a white robed, beautiful lady near an ancient tree, which was by the roadside. It was close to midnight. They walked together and were approaching the cemetery outside the town. The lady said she was going thus far only; when the man suggested his accompanying her to her home, he noticed that the figure was no longer beautiful, but was made of skeletons. He ran home as fast as he could. The lady had been killed by the revolutionarios at the ancient tree by the roadside.”

(Demetrio 1964, 101)

For the online source, the researcher chose the Lady of Balete Drive as the Kaperosa in the story is extremely popular among individuals who have heard stories and rumours. The article by Unexplained Mysteries (n.d.) accounts for the anecdote of a particular taxi driver.

“A taxi driver picked up a woman passenger around 8:00 in the evening. Along Balete Drive. She was young, pretty, and wearing a white party dress. After getting the direction, he started driving, but noticed that the woman’s voice he heard did not come from the passenger but from inside his ears. It did not take long for the driver to glance at their rear view mirror and see that the girl was gone.”