DZRH broadcaster Deo Macalma claimed in a July 12 radio show episode that generals from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) allegedly walked out during a conference with a top government official. The AFP denied this.
In the July 12 episode of DZRH’s Damdaming Bayan, Macalma said in Filipino:
“According to my source inside Camp Aguinaldo… There was a heated discussion between a top general and a government official… about a national security issue… Since he didn’t want the discussion to get worse, the general stood up and saluted and told the government official: ‘Permission to leave, sir.’ He… walked out of the conference hall… After that, his fellow generals in the room followed and walked out too! (timecode: 01:15 to 03:23)”
“That’s fake news. I was there personally, there’s nothing of that sort that happened. It was a very professional exchange of ideas and discussion…and it ended on a positive note,” AFP Spokesperson Col. Francel Margareth Padilla told reporters in a July 16 press conference.
VERA Files Fact Check reached out to Macalma, who refused to comment on the matter.
“Thank you for reaching out but our boss Deo Macalma has declined to issue any more statement regarding your inquiry,” Rommel Fuertes, desk head of DZRH News, told VERA Files Fact Check in a July 18 e-mail.
Retired brigadier general Johnny Macanas Sr. echoed Macalma’s claim in a video posted to his YouTube channel The General’s Viewpoint on July 16:
“Bok, narinig mo ba ‘yung AFP generals na nag-walk out sa isang command conference kasama ang isang top government official noong July 4 sa General Headquarters, Camp Aguinaldo? (timecode: 00:15 to 00:37)”
(Bok, have you heard about the AFP generals who walked out of a command conference with a top government official on July 4 at General Headquarters, Camp Aguinaldo?)
In a July 16 statement, the AFP said:
“There is no truth to the recent commentary by BGen Johnny Macanas Sr. (Ret) on a radio ‘blind item,’ whether intentional or not. It is not only based on unfounded information, his comments were also misleading and uncharacteristic of any military officer, active or retired.”
The video posted by The General’s Viewpoint garnered 132,785 interactions, while the DZRH episode garnered 2,864 interactions. This claim first appeared eight days after the AFP conducted its mid-year command conference with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. among those in attendance.
