Military maintains arrested Chinese a spy

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THE Armed Forces yesterday maintained that the Chinese recently arrested by the NBI on suspicion of espionage was engaged in unauthorized surveillance activities.

AFP spokesperson Col. Francel Margareth Padilla made the statement a day after the wife of Deng Yuanqing, Noemi Deng, denied allegations her husband is a spy.

“What was conducted was an authorized foreign intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance activity,” Padilla told a press briefing at the AFP general headquarters at Camp Aguinaldo.

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Padilla said the suspect cased “hundreds” of military and police camps and other critical structures, which she said is a matter of serious concern.

She did not disclose the areas allegedly cased by Deng, who was arrested on January 17 in Makati City, along with two alleged Filipino cohorts.

Padilla said it is up to the NBI to disclose information on the areas subjected to surveillance, noting the agency is the leading the ongoing probe.

“But these are all a matter of sincere and serious concern in our part, as the AFP is the one safeguarding our national security. So with that, we do not want to leave any stone unturned, so to speak, in terms of this investigation,” said Padilla.

On Monday, Noemi told a press briefing her husband is not a spy, disputing the allegations of the NBI and the Armed Forces. She said her husband is engaged in road surveys for a firm that specializes in self-driving vehicles. She said Deng has been in the country for over 10 years now and they have an eight-year-old child.

Padilla said military statements on the issue are based on evidence.

“We have to work with empirical data. So we do not work on hearsay, we do not base on opinions, and all those things,” she said.

“The Armed Forces of the Philippines understands her concern, being of course emotionally involved, being a wife, a mother,” said also said.

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