By Junex Doronio

IT WAS ONE DARK SUMMER NIGHT in 1975 when my cousin Engracio, and a friend of his whose name escaped my memory, and I were walking on a field towards the municipal hall of our sleepy coastal town of Borbon north of Cebu island where a “bayle” (dance) was being held.

When suddenly we noticed a stingray-shaped luminous green flying object hovering over the coconut trees near our grandparents’ house.

Out of curiosity, we pointed at the strange flying object which — in our naive perception as teenagers then — had an intelligence of its own that it tried to hide itself behind the coconut leaves.

Just like a “hunyango” (chameleon), its greenness blended well with the green color of the coconut leaves.We decided to forget the whole thing.

As Engracio and his friend were enjoying watching our townmates dance the night away, I had to excuse myself because I suddenly had an asthma attack and went to our grandparents’ house to sleep.

As I was trying hard to sleep inside a dark room with only a poorly lit lamp and trying hard to conquer my fear as my grandparents’ house was reputedly haunted, a very bright light suddenly illuminated the window beside my bed.

But it was a split second, I think, and after a few more seconds I heard a loud explosion in the vicinity of the municipal hall. I was too weak to get up because of my asthma and as I concentrated hard to heal myself naturally, I fell asleep.

The morning after, I heard some townmates saying that something huge crashed into the sea at the back of the municipal hall building.Years passed and the strange event in Borbon seemed to have been forgotten by many.

My cousin Engracio and I, however, just can’t forget.”

Parts, kahinumdom pa ko” (Cousin, I still remember),” Engracio told me.

Usually, the so-called UFOs (unidentified flying objects), now referred to as UAPs (unidentified aerial phenomena) are always described as either round like a saucer, hence the term flying saucers, or oblong.

But ARY News reported that during the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup hosted by Russia, from June 17 to July 2, a “giant stingray” was reported lighting up the skies over northern Russia.

A nervous Russian woman who spotted the mystery lights in the city of Kirov wrote: “What the hell was that? It doesn’t look like anything I’ve previously seen.”

According to Russian space officials, the eerie light show coincided with a Soyuz-2.1.B launch from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the country’s sub-Arctic Arkhangelsk region.

The Russian experience was eerily similar to what we had a long time ago.