After the launch of the ROCKet Zipline, I joined the media group on a ghost-hunting tour of the unexplored and unlighted hospital laterals of Malinta Tunnel.   Here,we donned hard hats for head protection (some parts of the tunnel have low head rooms) and brought flashlights.  We started the tour at the tunnel’s east entrance, proceeded to the second lateral on the right side, then headed northward towards the tunnel’s north entrance.

Check out “Launch of the ROCKet Zipline“

Malinta Tunnel entrance

At one time, our tour guide requested us to turn off our flashlights for a few seconds so as to have a feel of the eerie darkness of night.  He also pointed out the location where, just prior to the recapture of Corregidor by the Americans, a number of Japanese soldiers who, rather than surrender, strapped themselves together and committed suicide by blowing themselves up with grenades.

Into the darkness

Our guide narrating the tunnel’s past history

The guide  also pointed to a piece of bone (presumably Japanese), charred as a result of the Americans pouring gasoline down the air vents and then dropping grenades to detonate it. As a result, most of tunnel walls (ironically, built with Japanese Asada cement) were blackened with soot.  Of the 2,000 remaining Japanese, only 26 of them survived the blazing inferno.

An air vent where gasoline was poured into the tunnel

Land crab – denizen of the dark

Sun Cruises, Inc. (SCI) – Reservation Office: CCP Terminal A, CCP Complex, Roxas Blvd., Manila.  Tel: (632) 831-8140 and (632) 834-6857 to 58.  Fax: (632) 834-1523.  E-mail: suncruises@magsaysay.com.ph.