Government UFO team probes dancing light in Pampanga

MABALACAT, Pampanga — A government team investigating unidentified flying objects (UFOs) is expected to arrive here today to investigate the mysterious light that danced in the sky for five hours over this town and nearby Angeles City last Friday night.

This developed as Elmor Escocia, chief of the UFO team of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration, cited reports that at least 10 people claimed to have seen a bright UFO land somewhere in Kabangkalan, Negros Occidental last Sept. 23.

Escocia said one of the witnesses claimed that the supposed UFO emitted an almost blinding light as it landed at about 8:45 p.m.

He said the UFO team is still gathering more details about the incident.

Escocia said the UFO team decided to investigate the dancing light phenomenon here after witnesses insisted that the strange glow, that persisted from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. last Friday, remained visible despite the cloudless sky.

"We almost dismissed it as a case of land-based halogen light being reflected in the clouds, until we received reports that the phenomenon was observed even during episodes of cloudlessness," he said.

Scores of residents of Maba-lacat and Angeles City were intrigued by the mysterious light which they described as greenish white and danced in alternating circular or straight east-west patterns.

Noel Tulabut, an employee of the Clark Development Corp. (CDC) and a resident of Baran-gay San Joaquin in Maba-lacat, said the light seemed to hover above the Sto. Rosario church in downtown Angeles.
Other residents suspect that searchlights produced the dancing light, although the police said they found no such searchlights while the phenomenon was going on.

Escocia said a similar phenomenon was reported in Caloocan City and Marilao, Bulacan in February last year, but the light in the sky, upon investigation, was traced to a powerful light being used in a karaoke bar in Marilao.

"The whole lighting system used there cost as much as P250,000 and therefore, was very powerful," Escocio said.

Escocio said his UFO team got interested in the incident here because of reports that residents saw the light even when there were no clouds, unlike in the Marilao case.

"Whether or not the case in Mabalacat is a duplication of what happened in Marilao, we have to investigate it and let the people know the results of our investigation," he said.

Unless this is done, he said people in Mabalacat and Angeles might be led to hallucinations.

"It is usual that people begin to see hallucinatory objects after reports of strange phenomena and we want to prevent this by investigating reports about the strange light and possibly come out with a logical explanation," Escocia said.

Meanwhile, Escocio said the UFO team cannot readily respond to calls for investigation of mysterious astronomical phenomena due to budget constraints.