The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) implemented stricter security at military camps nationwide following the arrest of a suspected Chinese spy.
AFP Chief General Romeo Brawner Jr. ordered commanders of military camps to fortify their walls to prevent sleeper agents from accessing critical information.
“With the pronouncement of our Chief of Staff, part of our SOP [standard operating procedure] is to fortify security in our camps, but over and above that, with our internal security protocols, we further tightened the entry of visitors inside camps, as well as our document security and cyber security,” AFP spokesperson Col. Francel Margareth Padilla said on Tuesday, Jan. 28.
Authorities arrested Chinese engineer Deng Yuanqing and his two Filipino cohorts, Ronnel Jojo Balundo Besa, and Jayson Amado Fernandez, in Makati City last Jan. 17. The Chinese suspect was accused of actively engaging in sophisticated surveillance, espionage, and intelligence-gathering activities in the country. On the other hand, authorities said the Filipino cohorts were aiding the Chinese suspect.
However, the wife of Mr. Deng reportedly denied that his husband was a spy, saying that the Chinese man had been in the country for 10 years already. The Chinese Embassy in Manila also urged the national government to base its judgment on facts as it described the so-called espionage operation of Deng as "baseless."
In response, the AFP said that there is overwhelming proof that Mr. Deng has been involved in dubious activities.
“The Armed Forces of the Philippines understands her concern, being of course, emotionally involved, being a wife, a mother. But for the Armed Forces of the Philippines, we look into the evidence-based results of this investigation,” Padilla said.
The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and AFP earlier said that since December 2024, Deng and his cohorts frequently visited critical infrastructure such as military installations, ports, malls, communications grids, energy grids, and major seaports and airports covering major routes from the northernmost point of Luzon down to the Bicol region to gather intelligence information such as details of the topography and terrain of the target places.
“This is an unauthorized foreign intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance activity that was conducted. And what we can point out is that these are crucial features that have been found in the data,” Padilla noted.
The data were allegedly transmitted to an outside source using a piece of equipment capable of producing coordinates. After harvesting data in Luzon, the group is allegedly set to visit other target areas in Visayas and Mindanao.
The Chinese suspect, according to the NBI, is a graduate of the People’s Liberation Army University of Science and Technology, which is controlled and operated by the Chinese military.
“These are all a matter of sincere and serious concern on our part, as the AFP is the one safeguarding our national security. So, with that, we do not want to undermine, and we do not want to leave any stone unturned, so to speak, in terms of this investigation,” Padilla said.