Chinese spies will only pick up chatter from gossipers at cell sites that will be set up in military Philippine camps, assured Interior Secretary Eduardo Año as a former spy chief himself.
“Kasi diyan ano makukuha mo dyan? Nag-uusap na mga tao, nagtsismisan ng mga tao (What will you get there? People chatting, gossiping),” said the retired Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief during an interview over CNN Philippines on Monday (Sept. 21).
“I don’t see you can get quality information or intelligence in those cell sites,” stressed Año who also served as chief of the Intelligence Service of the AFP (ISAFP) and the Army’s Intelligence Security Group (ISG).
Año pointed this out amid concerns that the Chinese government will be able to spy on Philippine government following the memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the AFP that allowed Dito Telecommunity, which is 40-percent owned by China Telecom, to establish cell sites at military camps.
The secretary clarified that the military camps being referred to in the MOA are not major camps like Camp Aguinaldo and Fort Bonifacio.
“When we talk of sites these are actually communication sites all over the country na nakalagay sa mga matataas na lugar, sa mga bundok yan, kasi nandoon yung tinatawag na relay stations (these are located in high places, up on mountains, because relay stations are located there),” he explained.
“So yun yung sinsabi ng kanilang MOA na makiki-co-locate doon which is una secured, pangalawa, ito ay established communication lines. Clear na talaga diyan. Kumbaga hindi ka na maghihirap, may tower ng nakatayo doon. Kakabit ka lang doon (What the MOA states is that the company will co-locate in these sites which are secured and are established communication lines. These areas are clear. Tou don’t face the difficulty of erecting towers there. You just have to connect),” he added.
If he were a spy of another country, Año pointed out “I will spy right inside Malacanang, right inside general headquarters, I will recruit people, I will place equipment there in the offices.”
“It’s not really a concern on what you call espionage because I worked in the intelligence community for a very long time and I know how to do surveillance technical monitoring,” the secretary said.
“Yung information affecting national security hindi mo yan makukuha sa ordinaryong telephone conversation (Information affecting national security can’t be gathered from ordinary telephone conversation),” he assured.