Bulacan governor: No plane crashed in Hagonoy

Bulacan Governor Wilhelmino‎ Sy-Alvarado. Screengrab from https://www.bulacan.gov.ph/government

MANILA, Philippines–‎Bulacan Governor Wilhelmino‎ Sy-Alvarado on Wednesday refuted reports that a plane crashed in the vicinity of Hagonoy town.

“We can assure that no plane crashed. Everything’s quiet here now,” Sy-Alvarado ‎told Inquirer.net in a phone interview.

Several residents, however, “heard a new sound and saw new lights” near the waters surrounding the coastal villages, the governor said.

“Whatever they heard and saw, we don’t know about that yet. But there are no debris in coastal areas off Manila Bay‎,” Sy-Alvarado said.

He said overnight search operations led by the military, the police and the Bulacan Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO) had yielded no traces of a plane crash.

Earlier reports said Hagonoy residents saw a low-flying plane over Sta. Elena village around 9 p.m. Tuesday.

The Bulacan PDRRMO, quoting Captain Dax Barinos of the 18th Special Forces Company of the Philippine Army, said the two helicopters reportedly spotted by fishermen in Manila Bay did not crash.

Some reports said the aircrafts might be conducting military exercises, the Bulacan governor said.

“But I’m not privy to that. It’s the military who could explain that,” he said.

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