Espionage

IN THE WAKE of series of events that has been reported happening around the country for the last few weeks and months or so, it is quite alarming to note shocking news stories about the widening scope of the espionage scenarios within and outside the country.

There is no doubt that  after the successful joint intensified investigations and findings in unraveling the real truth behind the dismissal of Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo, a.k.a. Guo Hua Ping, as an alleged potential Chinese agent is a clear evidence and indication that there are “sleeper agents” or “spies” that lurk and have been living with us for quite some time, secretly gathering and transmitting sensitive confidential information to China, which had posed imminent danger in our country’s national security.

SCOPE OF ESPIONAGE

The widening scope of the Chinese espionage in the country is clear evidence that our country’s vulnerability to Chinese espionage is real that the national government must not be complacent by putting the entire country at risk. 

The government must not take the matter for granted, as China’s continued political maneuvering of their discrete and malicious espionage underground mission, using their embedded “spy agents”, put the entire territory for possible all-out invasion if not fully controlled or eradicated from the main streams of our Society.

In May 2024, a BBC report, citing information from an unnamed Western intelligence official, estimated that Beijing had “around 600,000 people working on intelligence and security, more than any other state in the world.”

IMPLEMENT NEW ESPIONAGE LAW

So, it is necessary that the national government must resolve the current dangers that lurk within our communities. 

All government agencies and authorities involved in the full implementation of the new espionage law, must act decisively and wisely to fully terminate, if not put an end in the penetration and proliferation of Chinese espionage within the confines of the restricted economic zones, government military facilities and infrastructures of the country. 

Complacency has no place in our democracy, otherwise, the entire nation will suffer the consequences from the Chinese spying eyes. 

ALARMING REPORTS OF ESPIONAGE

President Marcos had indicated the problem could very well be wider and more serious.  He  said that he was “very disturbed” by the thought of Chinese sleeper agents operating in the country. 

Of course, as the Commander-In-Chief of the state, he has full prerogatives to issue directives to the Bureau of Immigration, NBI and AFP and all other involved agencies to apprehend and execute arrests on alleged suspected suspicious spy agents discretely conducting espionage activities within the state. 

The President was quite alarmed by the sudden apprehension and arrests of alleged “sleeper agents” or “spies” operating in Luzon and Palawan.

EMPOWER INTELLIGENCE CAPABILITY

National Security Adviser Eduardo Año’s call to modernize espionage laws is sound and worth pursuing, but the greater imperative is to empower the country’s intelligence capability. 

It’s time that the government put those hard-to-audit intelligence and confidential funds to good use, instead of dolloping them out for political favors. 

However, Año assured the public that the government remains steadfast in its commitment to enforcing the law and holding those involved in espionage accountable.

APPREHENSIONS AND IMMEDIATE ARRESTS

Last January 17, the NBI apprehended Chinese national Yuanqing Deng outside a condominium in Makati City. He is suspected of being a “sleeper agent” who has allegedly been conducting espionage activities in critical infrastructure, specifically military camps, Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) sites, local government offices, power plants, stations and shopping malls located in Luzon. Deng Yuanqing, an individual described by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) as a man of many hats–a “software engineer,” “financier,” and graduate of the People’s Liberation Army University of Science and Technology in Nanjing, who “specializes in control and automation engineering.”  

With the arrest of five Chinese allegedly “sleeper agents” between January 24 and 25, 2025, are: Cai Shaohuang (Richard Tan Chua), Cheng Hai Tao (Lestrade),Wu Cheng Ting (Brawn), Wang Yong Yi (Watson), and  Wu Chin Ren. 

Recently, it was also reported that the NBI arrested five alleged Chinese spies who were purportedly monitoring activities of the Philippine Coast Guard and the Philippine Navy in Palawan.

The five will be charged for violating sections of an anti-espionage law that dates back to the Commonwealth era. In particular, the five will be charged for: “unlawfully obtaining or permitting to be obtained information affecting national defense” and “unlawful disclosing information affecting national defense.” 

EMBEDDED FOR DECADES 

Last January 31, the Bureau of Immigration and the NBI, during a press media briefing, disclosed that five Chinese nationals allegedly involved in espionage activities in the country have been apprehended and “had been living in the Philippines for decades and embedded themselves within the Society.”

Immigration Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado said that the bureau recently checked the records of these suspected spies, and discovered that they have all been here for decades. “Some have been here as early as 2002,” he said. These recent discoveries will prove that these arrested embedded spies within our communities pose great threat not only to the homeland security but also the national territorial waters of the entire country.

The immigration bureau, in its mission to resolve the widening scope of espionage in the country, was working closely with the Department of Justice, NBI and the AFP to gather more information about the arrested suspects. It also urged citizens to report suspicious activities of foreign nationals that might affect national security.