UFOs don't seem to like visiting the Philippines

 (Published in ENRICH magazine, 2021)

IT'S BEEN 72 YEARS since the "first" UFO (unidentified flying object) sighting was recorded in the Philippines, and new reports suggest "extraterrestrials" from outer space or somewhere else in the multiverse continue to traverse Philippine skies at will.

To acknowledge there are alien spacecraft roaming our skies means accepting the thesis a star-faring civilization exists within "easy" reach of our solar system.  "Easy" in this sense means about 17,000 light years away (1.608324e+17km), which is the estimated distance between technological civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy posited by scientists at the University of Nottingham in England. We have yet to discover another Earth with life, intelligent or otherwise, however.

These scientists expounded on their theory about intelligent extraterrestrial life in a study published recently in The Astrophysical Journal, a peer-reviewed scientific journal of astrophysics and astronomy.

This same study makes the bold assumption, based on mathematical calculations, there might be at least 36 intelligent technical civilizations throughout the Milky Way. The stupendous distances between these technological societies, however, hinders efforts by these aliens to discover similar societies elsewhere. Which isn't to say at least one of these technological civilizations might have made god-like scientific strides that make rapid planetary travel possible.

"There should be at least a few dozen active civilizations in our galaxy under the assumption that it takes five billion years for intelligent life to form on other planets, as on Earth," said Christopher Conselice, a professor of Astrophysics at the University of Nottingham who led the research. "The idea is looking at evolution, but on a cosmic scale. We call this calculation the Astrobiological Copernican Limit."

The universe is home to more than a hundred billion trillion stars, most of which have exoplanets revolving around them, and two trillion galaxies. The unimaginable number of exoplanets out there beyond the Milky Way increases the possibility of older, god-like advanced civilizations with the ability to bend spacetime or to travel with ease between galaxies using technologies beyond our ken. That a civilization like this would have discovered our Earth would have been more of an accident rather than by design.

UFOs over Pinoyland

As far as UFO sightings go, the Philippines appears to be a backwater destination for a star-travelling alien people. The Philippines has not become a UFO hotspot like Chile (the country that claims to have the most number of UFO sightings on the planet) likely for the same reason our tourism industry still flounders: it isn't more fun in the Philippines.

Nor is the Philippines likely to become a hotspot given the paucity of flying saucer encounters since Sept. 5, 1949. This is the day when the "first" UFO in the Philippines was spotted over Clark Air Base in Angeles City, which eventually became the largest overseas military installation of the United States Armed Forces.

This historic event was revealed in Project Blue Book, the famous study of UFOs by the U.S. Air Force conducted from March 1952 to Dec. 17, 1969. The Philippines' first UFO case, however, came only two years after what's considered the first modern UFO sighting in the United States: nine flying saucers in the air near Mount Rainier in Washington State on June 24, 1947.

Apart from the Clark sighting, others documented by Project Blue Book include an event at an unspecified location on November 1957; another at Clark that same month and eight more until June 29, 1966 when the final sighting was recorded over Ligao, Albay. In all, a scant 11 sightings in the Philippines were listed by Project Blue Book from 1949 to 1966. These incidents are only those seen by eyewitnesses, meaning the total number of intrusions is very much higher.

Alleged UFO over Pangasinan in 2022

Hunting for UFOs

Other international sources confirm UFO sightings in the Philippines beyond 1966. A UFO was sighted on August 1, 1961 over Subic Bay in Zambales, according to the website, UFO Hunters. This was the website's earliest reported UFO incident in the Philippines.

Subic was then home to U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay, the U.S. military's second largest overseas military installation after Clark Air Base.

This website, which was co-founded by a multinational but mostly American group of UFO hunters and enthusiasts, listed fewer than 90 sightings in the Philippines from 1961 to 2019. The overwhelming majority of the UFO sightings reported by UFO Hunters occurred over Metro Manila and Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon). There were a few in Northern and Central Luzon and none in the Visayas and Mindanao, as can be seen from a list and a map on the UFO Hunters website.

UFOs seen in Philippine skies were variously described by eyewitnesses as being shaped like dots, discs, triangles, eggs, stars, rectangles and ovals.

On the other hand, UFO Hunters lists the 20 second-long sighting of a circular-shaped object over Mandaluyong City on April 4, 2019 as the last sighting of a UFO in this country.

This event involved two round white objects flashing blue lights as they floated in the sky. An eyewitness said one UFO slowly headed towards the direction of the sun while the other remained stationary. Both UFOs vanished after several minutes.

The site listed no sightings in 2020 likely due to the Covid-19 pandemic keeping most Filipinos indoors or to a lack of data.

A now static blog named "UFOs in the Philippines" also cited UFO Hunters and other sources in tracking UFO activity in this country. With this blog apparently inactive, it's been left to the non-profit UFO Society of the Philippines (UFOSP) and like-minded organizations, and media firms such as GMA Channel 7 to keep track of local UFO sightings.

A UFOSP officer, Zaldy Vilches, talked about UFO sightings in an special episode on UFOs aired by the Channel 7 news program, Brigada Siete, on March 6, 2021.

Earthly investigations

The three UFO sightings examined by Brigada Siete in this episode occurred over the past year. It included an alleged UFO landing in Marawi City (the capital of Lanao del Sur), a daytime sighting in Camarines Sur and a nocturnal event in Pasig City. These occurrences, however, weren't included in the UFO Hunters database.

Brigada's investigations proved the brilliant light seen on video cam in Marawi at night was caused by the intense glow from a huge local government LED display inside the city. The daytime Camarines sighting -- a white dot falling towards the ground -- was probably the result of light reflecting off the video camera's sensor, said a video expert.

The most astounding video, that of a bright red aerial object dousing the ground with what appeared to be a liquid and smoke, was only an aerial disinfection drone on a nightime  disinfection flight, said a statement from the Pasig city government.

An episode of another Channel 7 news program, "Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho" broadcast Feb. 17, 2019, investigated the first UFO sightings in Negros Occidental.

Eyewitness smartphone video taken February 14 showed a dot of light in the night sky over the Talisay Silay Milling Company sugar mill. The local government brushed aside the claim the light was a UFO and said it was just a "red flare," whatever that means. In her search for answers, Soho went to PAGASA (Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration).

Jose Mendoza IV, team leader, Astronomical Sightings at PAGASA was uncertain. At first he said the dot was the International Space Station (ISS), which he noted passes over Negros every 6:00  pm to 7:00 pm. The video, however, was taken at about 8:00 pm.

Next, Mendoza said the dot might be the planet Mars. When asked why the object moved when Mars doesn't, Mendoza changed his mind and said the UFO might be an airplane.

Mysterious lights in the Pampanga sky seen  in 2015

Confused

Mendoza's confusing answers illustrate the government's dearth of knowledge about the UFO phenomenon. The relative scarcity of reported UFO sightings in this country -- about one per year since 1949 -- means the government has no incentive to spend taxpayer money on investigating UFOs in depth.

In contrast,  there were 4,881 reported UFO sightings in the United States in 2017 alone, said the National UFO Reporting Center, an organization in the U.S. that investigates UFO sightings and alien contacts.

The fact two local TV programs seemed to explain recent UFO sightings as mere earthly phenomena diminishes any incentive for Filipinos to believe the truth is out there. And, of course, Filipinos that report seeing lights in the sky whatever their shape are still widely regarded as, well, less than sane.

UFOSP recognizes this stigma and on its Facebook page states its main objective "is to encourage Filipinos to freely express and share their thoughts with other level-minded people. Thus, the UFOSP strives to provide a common ground where everyone could discuss the UFO enigma openly without the social stigma."

UFOSP also says it "aspires to establish an outlook based on our homegrown understanding and belief, not by chiefly echoing foreign perspectives, because we seriously consider UFO-related matters not merely as a theory grounded on Area 51 but more importantly, as an issue that predates way and far back the time we were recognized in the annals as Filipinos."

Light pillars in the sky over Masbate in 2021 mistaken for UFOs

Flir, Gimbal and GoFast

Interest in UFOs is again spiking because of the release by the U.S. federal government this June 25 of its preliminary report on "Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon," or UAP, the acronym it now uses instead of UFO.

The report was mostly grounded on evidence gathered from U.S. Navy reports over the past 20 years. It centered round three videos, which were given the names Flir, Gimbal and GoFast, and the testimonies of fighter pilots that figured in these close encounters in 2004, 2014 and 2015.

The black and white videos recorded by missile targeting instruments aboard twin-seat McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet combat jets officially documented these bizarre encounters with three types of UAPs.

While the three videos are compelling in themselves, the testimonies of the four fighter pilots involved in the first encounter in 2004 leaves one almost convinced the UAP they encountered was other worldly since its aerial maneuvers broke all the known laws of physics and were impossible with existing human technology.

The pilot that encountered this UAP was the commander of one of the fighter squadrons aboard the U.S. Navy nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN-68). On Nov. 14, 2004, Commander David Fravor flying a two-seat F-18 Super Hornet saw just above the waves off the California coast a 40 foot-long oval-shaped object, white in color, hovering above an ocean disturbance that seemed to him like a huge submarine underwater.

Flir and Gimbal videos of UAPs from the U.S. Navy

Favor dove to get a closer look and was stunned when the UAP climbed towards him and then quickly vanished. A second fighter patrol took off from Nimitz to investigate. One of the jets was equipped with an advanced Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) camera, which detected and recorded the maneuvering UAP. The pilot of this jet described the UAP as a flying "Tic Tac" (a popular brand of mint candy with white shell) but did not himself see the UAP.

The Gimbal and GoFast videos of UAPs performing impossible flying maneuvers were recorded in 2014 and 2015 by fighter pilots of the aircraft carrier, USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71).

The prelim report reached no conclusion about what the UAPs were, citing a lack of evidence. It did, however, confirm the recordings were those of unexplained actual physical objects and were not false readings. The report said the confirmed UAPs "probably lack a single explanation."