The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said Friday that safeguards have been put in place against espionage and any other security risks from its partnership with Dito Telecommunity, the country's third telco player which is 40 percent owned by a Chinese company, to build its cell sites in military camps.
(MANILA BULLETIN)
Major Gen. Edgard Arevalo, AFP spokesperson, said an assessment was made and it determined that these threats are low.
"Sa totoo lang, we consider 'yong threat to be low because nagsagawa na tayo ng assessment before tayo pumirma (To be honest, we consider the threat to be low because we already conducted an assessment before we signed the deal)," Arevalo said.
The issue, which was raised as early as last year, was revived after Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said last Wednesday that he signed the Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) for the realization of the plan.
"I signed the contract recently," he told lawmakers during the deliberation of the Defense department's budget at the House of Representatives.
Lawmakers have expressed concern that China could easily listen to military officers' smart phones through spy softwares that would transmit their data through the cell sites of Dito.
Retired Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio has expressed alarm about the deal, saying that this could enable China to spy on military officers during command conferences.
But Arevalo said the threat of Dito spying on the military is low.
"There's a low threat in terms of concerns on spying or listening devices. Pinag-aralan na 'yan, may experts tayo na nakakaintindi diyan. Secretary of National Defense Delfin Lorenzana said the reason why he signed it is because he was satisfied with the AFP's presentation of the risk assessment in terms of what preparations or measures will be executed to ensure that national security will be protected," Arevalo said.
Averalo said they also have the same cell site agreement with the country's top two telecoms Globe and Smart.
"This deal is not specially or specifically catering Dito Telecommunity. This is the same deal that we have so far granted to these two telecoms," he said.
As part of the deal, Arevalo explained that the third telco player will be able to co-locate their cell sites, towers, and antennas in military camps.
In exchange, Dito will provide in-kind assistance to the military through the provision of trainings, equipment, and capability upgrades to their Information Technology (IT) experts.
Arevalo said the cell sites will not necessarily be built "at the heart of the military camps."
"We have camps with big reservations and we can co-locate (the cell sites) there together with the other signal facilities of Globe and Smart," he said.
He said the cell sites are usually located in military camps since they are often being targeted by communist insurgents in their extortion activities.
"It is included in the requirement of the Dito Telecommunity. What they need is an added security that their co-location with AFP camps can provide. We know that these cell sites have to be located in areas that are not usually inhabited so they seek the help of the AFP to guard them," he said.
The AFP has yet to determine where the cell sites will be built and how many camps will be used by Dito.
Among the camps that have Globe and Smart cell sites are the AFP General Headquarters in Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City, Philippine Military Academy (PMA) in Baguio City, and Fort Bonifacio in Taguig City where the Philippine Army headquarters are located.