Balete Drive is a two-lane undivided street and main thoroughfare in the New Manila District, in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines. The road is an undivided carriageway, that is, a road without median. The road is a major route of jeepneys and cabs, serving the New Manila area, connecting Eulogio Rodriguez Sr. Avenue and Nicanor Domingo Street in Quezon City. The road is noted for a number of balete trees that formerly lined it, and urban legends of a white lady ghost.
Route description
Balete Drive connects the long span between Eulogio Rodriguez Sr. Avenue and Nicanor Domingo Street in New Manila, Quezon City. The Balete Drive corner at E. Rodriguez is a bustling business area mushroomed with fast foods and other establishments. This north end of the Balete Drive starts at a dead end next to the Diliman Creek, north of Eulogio Rodriguez, Sr. Avenue Running in the NNE to SSE direction, it ends in a T-junction with the Nicanor Domingo Street near the San Juan Reservoir for a total length of. One of its major intersection is with the Aurora Boulevard, a major road which leads to Cubao, a major commercial district in Quezon City. The Manila Line 2Betty Go-Belmonte station is located east of this junction. The avenue is classified as a national tertiary road of the DPWH's Philippine highway network.
History
Balete Drive was named after a gargantuan balete tree that used to stand in the middle of the road. The road, although the exact construction date is unknown, had been cemented and asphalted and became a main thoroughfare during the regime of President Ferdinand Marcos in the early 1970s. There are several Spanish houses in the area, including the famous 200-year-old "Centennial House", which supports the claim that Balete Drive has been in use since the late Spanish era towards the end of the 19th century.
In the past, the street was lined with large balete trees that darkened the area considerably and made it appear "frightening" to some Manila residents. In Pinoyfolklore, balete trees are believed to be a "home for spirits and mysterious creatures". Various legends and folklore have circulated since the 1950s that the street was haunted. Most of the legends describe a kaperosa ghost, a popular character in the Philippine folklore, who is supposedly haunting taxi drivers "for eternity". According to legend, the ghost is a teenage girl who was run over and killed by a taxi driver at night, then buried around a Balete tree in Balete Drive. One variation of the legend claims a student at the University of the Philippines was sexually assaulted and killed by a taxi driver, and her spirit roams the street looking for her murderer. Another version of the story claims that a female resident of one of the ancestral mansions lining Balete Drive was abused and killed by her own family, and her spirit haunts the road, seeking help from passing drivers. According to local rumor, the legend of Balete Drive was "fabricated by a reporter in the 1953 in order to come up with an interesting story". In 2005, a Quezon City barangay official proposed that the city could use the legends to boost tourism by declaring the street "haunted" and making it available for Halloween parties.
Zoning laws
The segment of the Balete Drive from Aurora Boulevard to Eulogio Rodriguez, Sr. Ave has been zoned by the Bureau of Internal Revenue for regular residential and commercial purposes.
