NEWSFLASH

BATAAN METEORITE REPORT SPURS WILD GOOSE CHASE

Balanga, Bataan, Feb. 20, 2000Thousands flocked to Barangay Cupang Central in search of an extra-terrestial object, but went away empty handed, finding not a single trace of the meteorite or UFO earlier reported by GMA-7 to have fallen in the area.

But some alleged witnesses told mediamen that they saw and felt the big object in Culis, Hermosa town, some 20 kilometers away from Balanga and in Pilar town, about six kilometers away from Cupang Central.

Lamberto Rubio, a construction worker, said he and his family were surprised by a very bright light engulfing their house in Landing, Pilar town at about 10:30 p.m. last Thursday. Pilar is about six kilometers away from Cupang Central.

Minerva Dilig, of Doña Francisca in Balanga, said she and her relatives were in Barangay Sibakan, also in Balanga, when they saw from above a very bright traveling object with yellow lights at about 10:30 p.m.

Sibakan is some four kilometers away from Cupang Central where GMA Channel 7 reported that the object fell.

In Barangay Culis, Hermosa, Bataan, some 20 kilometers away from Balanga, some residents said birds and fowls flew noisily when the flaming object passed by in the evening of Thursday.

Police in Balanga searched for the “thing” from Cupang Central to as far as Barangay Dangcol, an upland village in the capital town, from morning till noon yesterday but returned empty handed.

Members of the Bataan Press Club “saw nothing but mango trees teeming with young fruits standing majestically as if saying nothing fell here,” the group of newsmen said.