Provl Commander orders Investigation on alleged "UFO
Landing". . .
by: ROLANDO ESPINA
Bureau Chief, Philippine News Agency (PNA)
Col. Paterno Lomongo, Constabulary Provincial Commander, has directed
PC elements in Nortehrn Negros Occidental to verify the reported "landing" of an unidentified flying object (UFO) in a barangay
in the Carapale Valley in Calatrava.
Lomongo told Philippine News Agency (PNA) that he had informed Col. Buenaventura Casenas,
Region-6 PC-INP commander, regarding the sighting of UFOs in Calatrava (town) and some northern Negros Occidental towns last
April 1 and 2.
The big stir, however, was created on April 19 when the population of Bacolod City,
Talisay, Silay City, and E.B. Magalona reported having seen a "Mother Ship" which later spewed out smaller UFOs which
it led in " V " formation flying toward the mountain.
The place where the alleged landing occurred is part of the logged over
area which formed previously part of the Insular Lumber Company-Philippnes (used to be the largest integrated
hard-mill lumber Company in the world) concession.
Most of those who had witnessed the flight of unidentified flying objects (UFO) over Bacolod City and Talisay
last April 19 had shown initial hesitance to identify themselves until they heard that policemen had also seen the puzzling
phenomenon.
Among those who positively saw the UFOs was my own father, FULGENCIO ESPINA, who reached Bacolod about six
in the morning of Thursday, April 19. He was with twenty others who were amazed by what they had seen on their way to
Bacolod. They did not know that more than a hundred other persons in the town of Talisay, some seven kilometers north
of Bacolod, had also seen the "flying object" that brought many others to the streets.
Some, like the market vendors and jeepney drivers at the Talisay Public Market, scrambled for safety, even
as they peeped at the fiery phenomenon which hovered over Bacolod's suburban town and pulsated with a variety of colored flames
that streaked out of its underbelly.
Later, the witnesses recalled, the oval-shaped flying object spewed out colored flames from its underbelly
followed by the emergence of about thirty smaller circular objects.
These, displaying similar characteristics as the "mother ship" the other flying objects arranged themselves
in a "vee" and flew off with the big one leading them toward the earth. These were the ones that attracted the attention
of the bus passengers somewhere off Silay City.
Most of those who had seen the object were almost unanimous in their observation that they hear "no sound",
unlike in an airplane.
"At first we thought it was an airplane. But then, it hovered over some sugarcane fields and flashed
off and on with vari-colored flames," my father told our family.
Almost simultaneously that Thursday morning, members of a Talisay Integrated National Police (INP) patrol,
headed by SGT. ROGELIO JAMISON, rushed out of the police station to gawk at the "unidentified flying object".
Over at the Talisay town plaza, a group of about twenty early morning joggers, led by GEORGE DONESA,
also stopped running and gazed at the aerial phenomenon which had sent vendors and jeepney drivers either into the streets
fronting the public market or scampering for safety.
Over at the Talisay-Silay Milling Company, dozens more rushed out of their homes to gaze at the hovering
"multi-colored fiery aerial craft". They had been awakened by the screams of NELLIE MALVAS, the 25-year
old cafeteria operator, who became alarmed when what she had thought was an airplane hovered over the sugar mill.
It turned out that on April 24, several jeepney drivers plying the Barangay Montevista-Bacolod poblacion
route had also witnessed the smae "unidentified flying object" with multi-colored lights' hover over the People's Homesite
& Housing Corporation (PHHC). What they were, nobody could say.
Accoridng to INP Station Commander FELIX DE ASIS, "they saw a flying object with blazing
flames of changing colors and later, saw several more emerging from the hovering craft, then split themselves up into "vee"
formation and few off in uniform flight. He had forwarded his official report to the Constabulary Headquarters in Bacolod
City.
MRS. FLORA MARQUEZ said she, her husband Jose, and their 20-year old son Noel, had also
seen these object hovering near the Bacolod-Murcia Milling Company.
ATTY. MYRNA PAGSUBERON of BM-AMCI also recounted having seen a flying disc with multi-colored
lights flying over Tangub area last April 25. Asked how she felt during the sighting, she answered simply, "awed".
According to her, her neighborhood in Tangub were out on the streets to watch the flying discs flying
off into the horizon.
Previous to her sighting, she reported taht on April 23, the whole neighborhood was awakened and ran off
to the streets between nine to ten in the evening after hearing motor sounds louder than the jet's coming and going
over their houses. "Even my grandmother had to go out to the streets because the sounds made our house vibrate, " she
said. However, she was not able to see anything that night, while her other neighbors, who were looking toward
the sea, saw flying discs with multi-colored lights.
PLACIDO BAUTISTA, subsector commander of the Barangay Auxilliary Police in Hacienda Magkurao
near Mt. Mandalagan, also reported to INP Station Commander De Asis that farmhands plowing the fields left their carabaos
when they saw the "Bulalakao"..
But they were amazed at the type of the "Bulalakao" thaey saw which performed almost exactly the
same way described by the TASIMICO and poblacion witnesses. "Bulalakao" is a legendary flaming
bird, a familiar object to Ilonggo folk tales.
Most of the witnesses agreed that the flying object was either saucer or cigar-shaped and exuding multi-colored
lights, very fast and suddenly remaining stationary, then northwards in V-shaped formation.
"We really have no idea what those were, but with so many reliable witnesses, we had to submit an official
report to higher Headquarters," De Asis said.
SOURCE: IWAG - The Weekly Newspaper covering Western Visayas
Vol.
5, No. 22 / 03 - May 1979