Philippines alarmed over China arrest of alleged Filipino spies
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The Philippines’ National Security Council spokesman Jonathan Malaya (left) disputed Beijing’s accusations.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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MANILA – The Philippines expressed alarm on April 5 over the arrest of three Filipinos in China on suspicion of espionage
The Chinese authorities arrested the Filipinos and accused them of working for the Philippine intelligence agency to gather classified information on its military, the state-run China Daily reported earlier this week, citing state security officials. It said the three had confessed to the crime.
The Philippines’ National Security Council disputed Beijing’s accusations, saying the three were former recipients of a government scholarship programme created under an agreement between the southern Chinese province of Hainan and the western Philippine province of Palawan.
“They are ordinary Filipino citizens with no military training who merely went to China at the invitation of the Chinese government to study,” National Security Council spokesman Jonathan Malaya said in a statement.
“They are law-abiding citizens with no criminal records and were vetted and screened by the Chinese government prior to their arrival there,” he added.
Mr Malaya said the supposed confessions appear to have been “scripted” and urged Beijing to respect the rights of the three Filipinos.
A report by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV on April 3 included what appeared to be a recorded confession by a Philippine national it said had been identified as one of the suspected spies.
The CCTV report said the man had lived in China for a long time and had been found spying near military facilities.
However, Mr Malaya said the supposed confessions “appear to be scripted, strongly suggesting that they were not made freely”.
He urged Beijing to “respect their rights and afford them every opportunity to clear their names, in the same way that the rights of Chinese nationals are respected here in the Philippines”.
He also said the spy agency mentioned by Chinese media as having recruited one of the suspects did not exist.
The Philippine foreign affairs department said on April 4 it was “providing all necessary assistance, including appropriate legal support”.
The Chinese Embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside office hours.
Hainan and Palawan both face the South China Sea, a strategic waterway where the two countries have staked overlapping claims and have clashed frequently over the past two years.
“The arrests can be seen as a retaliation for the series of legitimate arrests of Chinese agents and accomplices by Philippine law enforcement,” Mr Malaya said.
The Philippine authorities have arrested at least a dozen Chinese nationals in the last three months on suspicion of espionage, accusing them of illegally obtaining sensitive information on military camps and critical infrastructure that could undermine Manila’s national security and defence.
China has expansive territorial claims in the South China Sea that overlap with the exclusive economic zones of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
In 2016, an international arbitral tribunal ruled that China’s claims have no basis under international law
