A local official said on Thursday that, among the five Chinese nationals that were arrested in Palawan and Manila for alleged espionage were posing as tourists.
Provincial Board Member Ryan Maminta said that the alleged spies set up CCTV cameras facing the sea in Palawan.
“Yun po ang impormasyon na nakarating sa amin: na may mga aktibidad sila katulad ng pagkuha ng videos at hindi lang yun, paglalagay ng CCTV camera sa mga lugar. Tapos ang kanilang mga posing ay mga turista — hindi nga Chinese tourists — kundi Taiwanese tourist dito sa aming lalawigan,” he reported.
One of the Chinese nationals was caught filming Philippine Coast Guard ships, according to the National Bureau of Investigation.
Assistant Director General Jonathan Malaya of the National Security Council stated that authorities are investigating whether the suspects have any connection to a Chinese software engineer recently arrested for allegedly spying on Philippine military and police camps.
The Chinese engineer, Deng Yuanqing, along with his two Filipino drivers, were detained last week as part of counter-espionage operations that started last month, according to National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) chief Jaime Santiago during a press briefing.
He suspected that Deng was connected with a Chinese University that was controlled by the People’s Liberation Army and took part in a team that was sent to “conduct espionage in our teritory.”
Jeremy Lotoc, the NBI’s cybercrime chief, stated that Deng had regularly visited “key infrastructure, including military camps, local government offices, power plants, police stations, and even shopping malls.”
“They were basically collecting data and they have this remote application which transmits outside the country in real time data that they collected in our country,” Lotoc said.