Solcom: 5 soldiers slain by NPA is ‘fake news’

LUCENA CITY –– The spokesperson of the military’s Southern Luzon Command (Solcom) admitted that an encounter between government forces and New People’s Army (NPA) rebels happened in General Nakar, Quezon on Friday but denied that five Army soldiers were killed.

Solcom spokesman Lt. Col. Dennis Cana tagged the NPA report as “fake news.”

“There was a just an exchange of gunfire after residents reported their presence. As usual, they escaped with bloodstains found on their route of withdrawal,” he said in a short statement to the Inquirer.

But Eliza “Ka Eli” De la Guerra, spokesperson of the NPA Apolonio Mendoza Command, insisted on the truth of their claim that five soldiers were killed by Red fighters in a clash in Barangay Lumutan on Friday noon.

De la Guerra said Saturday that General Nakar police chief Lt. Christopher Paloyo  “is in a state of denial” on the result of the purported ambush.

In a phone interview, Paloyo refuted the supposed encounter.

“There was no encounter here or we were not aware of that supposed incident,” Paloyo told the Inquirer./lzb