The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said on Friday, March 6, that counter-intelligence security checks are continuing within government ranks to determine whether other Filipinos may be linked to alleged Chinese espionage operations in the country.

The monitoring is ongoing even after authorities arrested three Filipinos who supposedly admitted to leaking sensitive military information related to operations in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) to Chinese individuals.

The alleged informants include personnel from the Department of National Defense (DND), Philippine Navy (PN), and an informant “close” to a PCG official.

Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, AFP spokesperson for WPS, said the cases of the three suspects have already been “closed,” the threat was “neutralized,” and the suspects were placed “under the control of the military” but counter-intelligence checks continue to watch for other possible insider threats.

“Just put it this way, we disclosed the case of these three individuals because it is already considered closed. They are under our control and they are cooperative,” he said.

“So we are releasing this, of course with clearance from the higher ups, so the public will know, and so our adversaries will also know what their people are doing,” he added.

Trinidad said the alleged espionage activities of the three Filipinos were discovered through the “Insider Threat Program” or ITP, a newly-developed initiative by the AFP as the military shifted its focus to external defense and Comprehensive Archipelagic Defense Concept (CADC).

“It looks into all threats in the organization from within and out. From the external threat program, we’re able to see these kinds of information leaks,” he shared.

According to Trinidad, one of the three Filipino spies is a Navy personnel who previously worked as a researcher at the DND around the last quarter of 2022 before transferring to the Navy for a higher salary grade.

One thing common about the three Filipino suspects is that they were allegedly recruited through seemingly legitimate online work opportunities.

“The modus operandi, it works very subtly. Hindi mo halata sa umpisa (You cannot detect it at first) because the target population here are the fresh graduates,” Trinidad said.

He said many recruits were contacted after posting resumes online.

“When they applied for work, they posted their biodata, their resume in different platforms, and what is common among the three is that they posted theirs on LinkedIn,” he said, referring to a professional networking platform designed for career and business purposes.

“Someone contacted them saying, ‘Would you like to work for us, a consulting firm? You’ll be a columnist or analyst,’” Trinidad said.

At first, the recruits were asked to submit writing samples as outputs and the work allegedly came with financial incentives.

“After they submitted their write-ups, before you know it, the bosses will slowly tell you what to write about,” Trinidad said.

Authorities said the information shared by the suspects started from inputs on the natureof their work, the environment where they worked at, the structure of the offices, until it elevated into something more, which varied depending on their access within government offices, ranging from "confidential information," "secret," to "top secret" files.

Trinidad said this is dangerous since any classified information that falls into the wrong hands could put personnel at risk.

“It could be damaging to the organization. It could also put the lives of our men and women at risk,” he said.

Meanwhile, Rear Adm. Jay Tarriela, PCG spokesperson for WPS, said the incident is alarming because the leaked information involved operations in the WPS, which may have helped China anticipate AFP and PCG operations, particularly the resupply missions in Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal.

"I think this incident basically proved that the Chinese government is doing all possible actions to undermine our national security and weaken our position, especially our operations in the West Philippine Sea,” he said.

He said the PCG is now coordinating with the intelligence networks of other agencies such as the AFP, PNP, and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to prevent similar leaks, and monitor possible similar recruitment efforts.

“Since we are aware now of the modus operandi, how the Chinese government is recruiting those informants to leak sensitive information, now we are intensifying our means to monitor other personalities within our government,” he said.

The Chinese Embassy in the Philippines, however, denied that its government was involved in espionage in the Philippines, and urged authorities to be careful in making such accusations or it could "backfire."

"If certain individuals or agencies in the Philippines persist in hyping up anti-China sentiments and recklessly targeting anything related to China, it will only undermine the atmosphere of cooperation and ultimately backfire. We urge the relevant Philippine agencies to stop shadow-chasing and making groundless accusations and refrain from using so-called espionage claims as a pretext to disrupt normal people-to-people exchanges between the two countries and undermine the bilateral relations,” the statement read.

Meanwhille, both the AFP and PCG also expressed support for efforts to amend the country’s decades-old anti-espionage law, or the Commonwealth Act No. 616.

According to Trinidad and Tarriela, revising the anti-espionage law, which was enacted in 1941, is considered necessary because it is outdated and primarily designed for wartime scenarios.

They said the three Filipinos arrested for leaking sensitive information were recruited through online platforms, showing that espionage now occurs in subtle and non-war settings using technology, financial incentives, and social engineering, which the old law does not fully address.

They added that the current law, which originates from the Commonwealth era, has limited provisions and penalties that may not adequately deter or punish modern espionage tactics. Updating it would allow authorities to impose stiffer penalties for leaking classified information in peacetime, they noted.

“Of course we are in support to amend or repeal and come up with a new one,” Trinidad said.

“I leave it to the people assigned support our legislators but we are in support of any legislation that would strengthen the Armed Forces in implementing the security protocols,” he stressed.