The Kulaman Plateau Mystery II

(Continued from yesterday’s post, this is the last of two parts.)

The person who spoke for CAAP on television said, “We completely deny [that a plane crashed in the area.]” He added that a “registered” plane has a “flight plan” and the radars of the agency would have detected it if a crash really happened. I don’t know if the rest of the statement was edited out, but what came out on television was rather curt. It irked me. There are simply a lot of loopholes in the statement. But before I go to those loopholes, let me state that I agree that the object could not have been a passenger plane. Had it been an aircraft of Cebu Pacific, Philippine Air Lines, or a similar company, the news would have spread like wildfire. Apparently, only CNN Philippines and none of the major television networks got wind of the news.

The plane, if the object was really a plane, could very well be a private one, despite CAAP’s denial of the same. It’s possible that the owner or pilot of the plane did not have the flight registered with CAAP. We’re in the Philippines, and if there’s an individual or company that doesn’t comply with government requirements, it shouldn’t be shocking. Also, regardless of whether the flight was registered with CAAP or not, I highly doubt that the agency could properly monitor all the activities in our aerial territory. I’ve seen quite a few reports on television about outdated or completely inoperative essential equipment at the country’s main airport. It won’t be surprising if CAAP’s radars are less than serviceable. And of course, there’s plain old indolence and incompetence of government employees. You see that everywhere—in your municipal or city hall, the Department of Health, the Department of Education, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, even in the “elite” Special Action Forces of the Philippine National Police. It won’t be shocking to find out that workers in CAAP, the Department of Transportation and Communication, and related agencies have been sleeping on their desks.

I heard from some people that eyewitnesses claim they saw a plane. Could they be mistaken? While we live in the boondocks, I believe that the people of Kulaman Plateau are civilized enough to be able to identify a plane from a kite, a weather balloon, a flying garbage truck, a manananggal, or a saucer-shaped spaceship. Airplanes to and from General Santos City can be seen in the sky regularly, and scenes with airplanes are fairly common in movies, so they know what a plane looks like near or far even if they have not been on one. If they say it was a plane or something that looked like a plane, then it could only be a plane or something that looked like a plane.

I wonder if the object was a drone. A drone is unmanned, and it could be the reason why no one seems to have publicly sought help from the authorities to rescue any victim or recover any debris. I doubt, though, if a drone would produce the kind of sound that I heard. For the nth time, it was very loud. It was heard all over the municipality of Senator Ninoy Aquino and beyond. That’s an area of at least 40,000 hectares. If it’s true that the sound was heard in as far as the municipalities of Lebak and Esperanza, then the area can be as wide as 150,000 hectares. It must be a huge drone and quite low-tech, considering the kuliglig-like sound it made, and that doesn’t make sense. A conspicuous and cranky drone doesn’t make sense. I must admit, though, that the only drone I’m familiar with was the one that Jeremy Renner shot down in The Bourne Legacy. So it might really be a drone. But the question is, What would a drone be doing in Kulaman Plateau? My best conjecture is that it was a U.S. drone looking for the other two terrorists that the PNP-SAF failed to neutralize in Mamasapano. Usman and Amin Baco might have sought shelter in the camp of Moro rebels in the municipality of Palimbang, southwest of Senator Ninoy Aquino. I’m not saying of course that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front is coddling the terrorists. I’m just saying that, just like what happened in Mamasapano, the terrorists might be hiding in an MILF territory without the knowledge or consent of the MILF leadership. Again, let me emphasize that this is merely a conjecture. I think it’s the fictionist in me who wrote the preceding couple of sentences. I’m merely exploring—and hopefully eliminating—the rumored but unlikely explanations for the bizarre incident. I still have more reasons to believe that the object was a private plane.

So if it was a private plane, why has there been no explanation or public call for help from the family or associates of the possible victim or victims? One possible reason is that the plane was doing or carrying something not legal, and the people who arranged the flight didn’t want the authorities to get wind of their activities. (Many people in the plateau have the suspicion that the plane was carrying Yamashita gold bars, and they’re wishing to stumble on the wreckage.) Another possible reason—and the religious may pray that this is really it—is that the plane was able to land safely despite the engine trouble. This isn’t impossible. As I’ve narrated earlier, the last sound coming from the sky was almost similar to that of a normal airplane. The rumbling became faint, but it didn’t end with an explosion, at least as what my ears caught. So if it was a private plane, what could it be doing in Kulaman Plateau? Maybe it was just supposed to pass and it had another destination. Maybe it was carrying an official or owner of the powerful logging company that operates in the area; the plane might have just been hired or might be owned by the company or the owner of the company. Investigators should ask a statement from the company. (And while they’re at it, they may ask the company why it doesn’t seem to have had any corporate social responsibility projects in the decades that it has been operating, stripping Kulaman Plateau of its virgin forests.)

Some people thought that the sound was caused by a bomb or bombs. It wasn’t. It didn’t sound like any of the bombs or missiles that I’ve seen explode in movies and documentaries. It didn’t sound like the improvised explosive device that went off some seventy meters away from our house in Isulan, several years ago. I don’t want to go into so much details about this. It wasn’t a bomb or any form of ordnance. Some people suggested that it might be the debris of the satellite that was expected to fall, but the United States’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration has denied this. The agency said that the satellite was still in orbit when the strange sound was heard. I don’t see any reason why NASA would lie, and as far as I know, a metallic object or a meteor falling from the sky—in the remote chance that it’s not yet burned up—wouldn’t sound like a truck engine.

To sum up, here are the things that I’m sure of about the source of the sound: (1) It was traveling in the sky. (2) It had an engine. (3) Its engine malfunctioned. Here are the things that I heard from other people and that might be true: (1) It looked like a plane. (2) A part of it was burning. I’m also sure that: (1) It was not a passenger plane. (2) It was not a bomb.

And the million-dollar question: Was it a spaceship? Many of the people in the plateau are thinking so, and that’s primarily because the authorities cannot give any reasonable explanation, and if the authorities don’t do anything further, the spaceship theory will surely become the best explanation for it. The Kulaman Plateau Mystery will tickle for sure the balls of UFOlogists, conspiracy theorists, and similar weirdoes. Imagine having at least 50,000 people as witnesses. All of them heard the sound, and dozens of them saw the object, and their descriptions are the same! This must be the biggest verifiable UFO sighting in the history of the world. I don’t mind if the rumor about aliens will spread. It might be the best way for people outside Kulaman Plateau to be interested in the matter. It might be the only way to persuade authorities or concerned organizations to conduct a thorough investigation. Let’s spread the lies and ignorant opinions so that we can solve the real mystery and find the truth.