00:00The Senate investigated the discovery of a submersible drone in Masbate. Daniel Manalasta is the reporter.
00:10The Senate investigated the discovery of a submersible drone in Masbate.
00:14They faced a fisherman who discovered a drone.
00:17According to fisherman Rodney, on December 30, 2024, at 6 in the morning,
00:21they passed a drone that he thought was just a buoy.
00:25When we got closer, I saw that there was a big body, so I turned around.
00:36And when we hit it, my colleague said,
00:43it was a bomb.
00:44Did you see that it was floating?
00:47The one that was floating was the tip, the red one.
00:50The one that was floating was the tip, the one that was floating was the tip, the one that was floating was the tip.
00:58Okay. Then?
01:01Then we hit it.
01:04That's when they saw a submersible drone.
01:07They talked to the barangay officials and the incident was reported to the police.
01:12The senators are in charge of the incident.
01:15The Department of National Defense is also involved in the discussion.
01:18As far as the Defense Department is concerned, we are treating it as a national security matter.
01:25Whether it is unarmed, uncrewed, but like I've said a while ago,
01:31we consider this as a violation of our territory and it's a matter of national security.
01:36According to the Department of Foreign Affairs,
01:38the problem now is that no country has yet admitted who the drone was found by,
01:43even though some suspect that it came from China.
01:47According to our research, basically, it came from China.
01:52So, it is a Chinese-made submersible drone.
01:56Did the DFA communicate with the other embassies, particularly China, because this was made in China?
02:03We did not send out a note to ask if this was yours.
02:08But we have not received any information, as expected,
02:12from any foreign state to claim ownership of the submersible.
02:16Based on our research, this is not the first time that there was an incident where a drone was discovered.
02:22In the Calayan Island group, in Pasukin, and somewhere in down south.
02:29But as to the make and the specification of those drones that were recovered,
02:37we cannot make a definitive conclusion as of this time as to the origin or the ownership of those drones
02:45because, like in this particular case, no country has ever claimed such drones.
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