'Budget' monolith: Pinoy answers trending obelisks with 'yero'

MANILA, Philippines —  Filipinos finally joined in the "fun" in the mystery of the monoliths "sprouting" in different parts of the world. 

Facebook user Jamie Paul Sollinger posted on December 6 about a "monolith spotted in Philippines province." The photo is actually a photo of a "yero" or galvanized metal sheet used for roofing in many houses in the country. It was made to look like it was standing from the ground but was actually just leaning on a brownish hillside. 

Sollinger's post has gone viral, with over 10,000 shares and almost 6,000 reactions as of writing.

Netizens could not help but throw in their observations, and of course, trademark Pinoy humor. 

"Monolith ka ha! Patay ka sa mangangalakal at bote bakal," Carlos Alfonso wrote on the comments section, referring to the buyers of scrap metals who do the rounds in villages and buy those yero for selling to junk shops. 

Erick James Espeleta stressed that it was not the same as those found in other countries, which were often three-sided welded metal pillars found protruding from the ground.

"This is a budget monolith. Medyo pricey kasi masyado yung sa ibang bansa," he wrote.

A six-feet, brand-new "yero" can only cost P360. 

CK Tangram mused that at least there's a Philippine version that pays homage to Stanley Kubrick's 1968 masterpiece, "2001: A Space Odyssey."

"It's a nod off to 2001: A Space Odyssey. In poor man's style," he wrote.

In the film, similar-looking monoliths appeared in the universe which were found out to be aliens' communication devices that are capable of transmitting knowledge and fostering higher intelligence on whichever mass of land in the universe they are found. 

This was also the common theory when the first monolith was found in Utah last November 27.

Related: UFO? Mysterious 'obelisk' in US desert draws wild theories

A few days later, it disappeared and another one was seen in Romania.

Related: UFO again? Monolith disappears from US, another found in Romania

Both have disappeared, with the Utah monolith being indirectly claimed by a group of artist-pranksters.

Related: Alien or art? Utah monolith removal explained, third found in California mountain

More monoliths were "discovered" in Adelaide, Australia; Poland and England.

Related: More 'UFOs'? New monoliths found in UK, Netherlands

Last December 10, British paper The Daily Mail reported that two more appeared in Poland, one in one of its southern cities while the other in  its capital, Warsaw. 

The Aussie monolith reported on a December 11 article on the same British paper said that it had three coordinates that point out to a building in Brooklyn, New York; to an uninhabited island in Northern Mariana Islands near Guam; and to the Sphinx in Al Giza Desert in Egypt.  

England has three similar looking, three-sided metal pillars —  in the Isle of Wight, Glastonbury and Dartmoor.