ARMED Forces Chief Alexander Yano denied yesterday?s report quoting him as saying that some graduates of the Philippine Military Academy were gays.

Yano said he was never interviewed, and nor did he issue any statement on the homosexuality issue, contrary to Standard Today?s page 1 story, ?Be discreet, AFP tells gays in service.? That story quoted him as saying that the military was open to gay recruits as long as they didn?t show their tendencies.

?...General Yano [did not] release any statement or comment to any reporter regarding the subject,? military spokesman Lt. Col. Ernesto Torres Jr. said in a letter to Standard Today.

Standard Today reporter Jaime Pilapil admitted the mistake, saying the story should have been attributed to Army Chief Lt. Gen. Victor Ibrado and Civil Relations head Brig. Gen Gaudencio Pangilinan.

The story stemmed from the pronouncement of Camp Aguinaldo that it is recruiting 6,700 new soldiers this year.

It was Ibrado, not Yano, who had said that a number of graduates of the PMA showed feminine tendencies after they left Fort del Pilar in Baguio City.

It was Pangilinan who had said that the military was not biased against homosexuals, and that as long as an applicant passed the physical and psychological tests, then he or she could be admitted into the service.