THE National Bureau of Investigation has arrested a Chinese and two of his alleged Filipino cohorts for allegedly spying on key military and civilian facilities in Luzon.
NBI Director Jaime Santiago identified the arrested suspects as Yuanqing Deng, who the NBI tagged as a Chinese spy, and Filipinos Jayson Amdado Fernandez and Ronel Jojo Balundo Besa.
They were apprehended at a condominium in Makati City at around 7 p.m. last Friday.
China’s embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The arrest comes amid growing suspicion in the Philippines over China’s activities, including the conduct of its coast guard and fishing militia in Manila’s exclusive economic zone.
Santiago, in a press conference, said the operation that netted the three was prompted by information provided by the Armed Forces last December, detailing a naval intelligence report about Chinese spies surveying sensitive military sites in the country.
Santiago said he immediately shared the information with his immediate boss, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla who then called for a meeting with AFP chief Gen. Romeo Brawner to discuss the issue and to track the group.
Santiago said a cybercrime team assisted by a special task force was formed to locate the suspects, with the main individual being identified as a Chinese technical software engineer.
“He is affiliated with the People’s Liberation Army and the University and Technology, which is controlled and operated by the PLA, with address in Nanjing and Jiangsu in China,” Santiago said.
“The one that we have arrested is a specialist in control engineering and automation and engineering discipline,” he added.
The PLA is the military arm of the Chinese Communist Party.
NBI Cybercrime Division chief Jeremy Lotoc echoed Santiago’s statement, adding that the arrested Chinese is a graduate of a university controlled and operated by the People’s Liberation Army.
He said the arrested Chinese is a “sleeper” agent,” or one who stays undercover for years, or even decades in a target country until he or she is activated.
Lotoc said the Chinese has been in the Philippines for around five years.
“We called him a sleeper agent, because throughout our monitoring, his movements were normal. He can blend with various groups,” he said in Filipino.
Lotoc said the suspects were in possession of maps and electronic devices when they were arrested by the NBI assisted by the Armed Forces.
“They have maps on where they planned to go. In fact, their plan is after Luzon, their next target is the entire Visayas and Mindanao,” he said.
Lotoc said since December when the NBI and AFP surveillance and casing operations started, they found that the suspects have a device capable of creating a third image of a target structure. They have this GNSS RPK global navigation satellite system which can be use in terms of navigation, artillery and guided missiles, logistics,” he said.
Among the targets were military and police camps, local government offices, power plants, and even shopping malls.
“Basically, they collate data and they have this remote application which in real time transmits outside. The application has a user outside the Philippines, and they collate data,” he said.
Lotoc said one the devices recovered from the suspects is also capable of producing coordinates to control drones.
EDCA SITES
Brawner said the group led by the alleged Chinese spy had visited areas where Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) sites are located.
EDCA allows the US to temporarily preposition military and humanitarian equipment in Philippine military bases.
“When we looked at the areas that this group went to, we saw EDCA sites,” Brawner said, adding the group may have gathered the coordinates and topography of these facilities “for military targeting purposes.”
Brawner did not identify military facilities and EDCA sites that the group visited.
EDCA sites are located inside military installations. The US military is allowed to establish facilities inside the EDCA sites for prepositioning of assets for territorial defense and disaster response operations, among others.
Brawner said they are investigating the possible connection of the Chinese with another suspected Chinese spy who was arrested last year in Makati City.
Recovered from the possession of the Chinese arrested last year were hacking devices and pictures of military camps, specifically the AFP headquarters Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City, the Army headquarters Fort Bonifacio in Taguig City, and the PNP headquarters Camp Crame in Quezon City
DANGEROUS
Brawner said information about military camps are “very important.”
“They’ve been to EDCA sites, they’ve been to (military) camps so this is very dangerous of course once the data is used by another military,” he said.
“Same with us, as a military, once we have a plan to attack a specific installation or facilities, we should know the topography, entry and exit points, and even the configuration of the buildings inside,” said Brawner.
Following the arrest of the Chinese, Brawner said the military has become stricter in the implementation of security measures inside camps.
He said this is also in line with the General Security of Military Information agreement that the Philippines and United States signed last year.
“We have to make sure that our camps are secured, not only camps but even vital installations. Aside from being very strict the camps, we are also monitoring the periphery of our camps,” said Brawner. – With Victor Reyes and Reuters