• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Police Regional Office (PRO) in Negros Island Region (NIR) have strongly dismissed reports circulating on social media, claiming government casualties during a recent armed encounter in Calatrava, Negros Occidental.
In a statement released Wednesday, June 17, the PRO-NIR described the reports as false and misleading, emphasizing that all police personnel involved in the operation have been accounted for and remain safe.
On June 14, an armed encounter occurred in Sitio Kabalagnan, Barangay Lalong, where troopers of the Regional Mobile Force Battalion-Negros Island Region (RMFB-NIR) engaged suspected New People’s Army remnants while providing security assistance to municipal local government operations officer Genevive Jadulos and village chief Roel Llagono, following a consultation with residents in the area.
“All members of the RMFB-NIR 1st Platoon, 2nd Maneuver Company have been accounted for and are safe, with no reported injuries or casualties on the government side,” the PRO-NIR said.
The DILG-NIR assured the public that Jadulos, Llagono, and all RMFB-NIR personnel involved in the operation were unharmed and safely accounted for.
Both agencies urged the public to refrain from sharing unverified information online, warning that misinformation can cause unnecessary panic, emotional distress among the families of police personnel, and potentially affect ongoing law enforcement and security operations.
PRO-NIR said that it will conduct an investigation, in coordination with the Regional Anti-Cybercrime Unit, to identify individuals responsible for creating, managing, and operating the social media page that allegedly published the false report.
It added that the incident would also be reported to Facebook for appropriate action under the platform’s community standards and policies against the spread of false information.
PRO-NIR further said it is “exploring possible legal action against individuals found responsible for maliciously disseminating false information online, subject to the results of the investigation and the determination of probable cause by appropriate prosecutorial authorities”. | GPB
