Senator Risa Hontiveros on Wednesday questioned the Department of National Defense (DND) request for a P500-million budget for cyber security programs for 2021 while it has allowed a Chinese-owned telecommunication firm to install cell sites inside the country’s military grounds.

Hontiveros questioned the DND on its ability to repel potential cyberattacks by foreign entities when it allowed the Dito Telecommunity, a foreign-backed telecommunication firm, to operate within the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ (AFP) grounds.

“You want to talk business? Well, this is a poor business sense,” Hontiveros said in a statement.

“May nagwawagayway na red flag sa kasunduan ng Armed Forces at ng China-owned Dito telco pero nagbubulagbulagan yata ang DND. (Someone has been waving the red flag on this partnership deal between the AFP and the China-owned Dito telco but the DND is blind to it)” she pointed out.

“Baka maubos lang ang buong P500-million na hinihingi nila dahil nilalabanan ang mga cyberattacks ng Tsina na kung tutuusin, pwede namang, at the onset, ipagbawal na agad sila sa loob ng mga kampo natin, (They will just waste this P500-million they’re asking because they are fighting cyberattacks from China, which they can prevent at the onset by refusing this telco entry into the country’s military camps),” the senator stressed.

“Be circumspect. Isn’t it foolish to allow a foreign entity, one with which we have territorial disputes, to put up a telco inside our military camps and then eventually spend for their potential cyberattacks?” she urged the DND.

Hontiveros warned the Philippines might experience the same predicament of Taiwan which also suffered breaches in cybersecurity after China tried to acquire their government data and documents.

Taiwan, she said, earlier warned its citizens of the “omnipresent infiltration” of Beijing-backed cyberattacks as China considers Taiwan its territory.

“Hindi malayong mangyari rin sa atin ito lalo na at patuloy na inaangkin ng Tsina ang ating mga teritoryo sa West Philippine Sea. Madali din nila itong magagawa sa atin (That’s not far from happening especially since China is invading our territories in the West Philippine Sea. They can easily do this) given that our cyber system has been proven vulnerable, ” Hontiveros lamented.

She insisted that China Tel, one of Dito’s investors, is 100 percent owned by China, contesting DND’s statement that China’s stake in Dito is immaterial.

“Hindi ito panghihimasok lang ng isang ordinaryong kumpanya. Panghihimasok ito ng Chinese Communist Party, ang Politburo nila mismo. (This is not just an interference of an ordinary company. This interference exerted by the Chinese Communist Party (CPP) itself,),” she said.

“The security threat is so obvious that it is rather naive to diminish this concern,” Hontiveros reiterated.