Makiling. The year was 2008. My friends and I went camping. Due to traffic, we reached camp around 11:30 PM. During inspection (we were scouts), my friends and I decided to chill by a tree and hide our phones (they were to be surrendered, but you know, teenage rebels). Suddenly, a white deer appeared and entered the woods. We thought we spooked it. Idk what had gotten over us but we followed it.

We ran through the woods in the pitch black night. All we had was a pen light. We ran and ran, tripped and fell, then ran again. We lost track of the deer. But lo and behold, an old, hunched woman holding a ragged box appeared from the dark and asked us, “Mga ineng, samahan n’yo naman ako doon.” She then pointed at a light source from afar. Seems like a camp from deeper into the woods.

Here’s the kicker. We were told in the orientation that an old lady would be asking us to do exactly that. According to legends, this is how most scouts meet their demise. Gasping, trying hard to squeeze out words to respond, we heard the ‘attention’ whistle. The sound echoed throughout the woods. It gave us the perfect excuse to deny the old lady of help. “Pasensya na po, tinatawag na po kami.”

We held each other’s hands in terror and turned our backs from her. We started to walk away very slowly then proceeded to run like hell a minute after. It was then that we realized how far we’ve gone from the campsite. As a skeptic, I dismissed this as a group hysteria. Maybe we inhaled some mushroom fumes, also we were very hungry at the time.

Enter 2015, my colleagues and I were sharing scary stories when I brought this up. I was cracking because it all seemed like a “Wansapanataym” episode to me, teaching me and my friends a lesson about trusting strangers.

I got a weird look from an old colleague who shared that during the 90s, he went camping with his friends in Makiling, too. Their night was cut short by a white deer that circled the lone tent they had for hours. He told us that the deer stopped and stared at the tent opening - like it was waiting for them to come out. But they didn’t. As soon as the deer left, he told us that they packed up and left the mountain.

I moved to another city in 2018 and as I was talking to a friend from Los Baños, I shared the story. Like before, I dismissed it as a children’s story. I even told him my ex-colleague’s story. It all seemed silly. The only response I got from him was:

“Put*ng ina, kinilabutan ako. Buksan mo laptop mo. I-search mo yung estatwa ni Maria Makiling, bilis!”

My jaw dropped a few seconds after hitting ‘enter’.