Dito Telecommunity Corporation, a new player in the Philippine telecommunications industry that is backed by investors from the People’s Republic of China, is a “very Filipino” company, one of its top officials said on Wednesday.

“To be clear, Dito Telecommunity is a Filipino company. We do have Chinese shareholders but they are below (the required) 40 percent (ownership). Under the Foreign Investments Act, we are deemed by law a Filipino company,” Adel Tamano, Dito’s chief administrative officer said in a Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum.

Tamano was refuting allegations that the communications equipment Dito would install in military camps would be used for “spying” activities in the Philippines.

The Dito official argued that even as a new communications service provider, the company has employed Filipino staff and its actual operations would be run by Filipinos.

“So when there are statements that we might go into spying, I think just saying that is an insult to the hundreds of the Filipino employees of Dito because we would never do that,” Tamano said.

“Why would any Filipino allow himself to be used for anything that would be detrimental to this country?” he pointed out.

Last week, the Philippine government allowed Dito, a joint venture between the state-run China Telecom and Dennis Uy, a business tycoon close to President Duterte, to construct towers inside the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

Sen. Risa Hontiveros has called on the Senate to conduct an immediate probe on the AFP-Dito deal amid concerns the agreement could pose a national security risk.

But Tamano said Dito has complied with a much stricter policies enforced by the Philippine military compared to two of its direct competitor—Globe Telecoms and Smart Communications.

“Our MOA (memorandum of agreement) is much stricter. We are not allowed to bring in foreigners into the AFP sites. Under the MOA, we are only allowed to bring in people after they are allowed to pass through security checks. Any access must be under the supervision and control of the AFP,” Tamano said.

“In fact even when we got our approval from the NTC (National Telecommunications Commission), we had to submit a cyber security plan which Globe and Smart have not done,” he said.

“Unlike them, we have submitted a cyber security plan which has to be approved by the DICT and the National Security Adviser (NSA),” he pointed out.

Compared to their competitors, Tamano said Dito has been held to a much higher standards in terms of keeping confidential information “in terms of protecting our country and our consumers against cyber security concerns compared to the two others.”

“But I think that’s a good thing; this higher standard must be applied not just to us, but also to them,” Tamano said.

Both Globe and Smart, he said, also have foreign investors. “Let’s be very clear about that. So if you want to have a very high cyber security standard, let’s apply (that) to everyone, so that all the consumers would feel safe,” Tamano said.

“These concerns about cyber security issues, of (possible leakage) of classified information—that applies to all. So let’s raise the standard for all,” he said.