By AFP and Focus | 2025-01-31

MANILA -- Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos on January 31 said he was "very disturbed" by the surveillance of the country's military, following a series of arrests of alleged Chinese spies.

"We are very disturbed by anyone conducting such espionage operations against our military," Marcos told reporters.

Philippine security officials one day earlier said they took into custody five Chinese spies, following the arrest of a compatriot for espionage earlier that month.

The suspects are accused of using a drone and camera to film various military activities near the disputed Spratly islands.

Drone espionage

The arrests came as confrontations between the two Asian neighbors over contested reefs and waters in the strategic South China Sea have escalated in recent months.

Two men were arrested at Manila airport earlier in January after they allegedly conducted surveillance on Philippine navy and other government vessels supplying military garrisons in the disputed Spratly archipelago.

The men, using a drone and high-resolution solar-powered camera, recorded activities at a naval base, a coast guard station, an air base and a dockyard in Palawan province, the closest major landmass to the Spratlys, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) director Jaime Santiago told a news conference.

"We consider them very dangerous to national security because of course, if this falls into other hands, this could be very dangerous for our personnel in the base and also those on board our ships," Philippine military chief Gen. Romeo Brawner told the news conference.

The spies disguised themselves as buyers of marine products or members of legitimate organizations.

Authorities arrested two other Chinese men separately in Manila and another in the central city of Dumaguete in January, Santiago said.

It followed the arrest in January of a Chinese software engineer named Deng Yuanqing and two Filipino associates suspected of spying on military and police camps -- allegations that were dismissed by the Chinese embassy in Manila.

A witness told the authorities Deng met with the five detained suspects once a month, acting on instructions from an unnamed "foreign national" in China, NBI cybercrime unit chief Jeremy Lotoc said.

Brawner said it was premature to conclude that the spying was state sponsored, with Filipino authorities yet to identify the end receiver of the intelligence gathered.

Tip of the iceberg

"This is perhaps just the tip of the iceberg; many can still be caught doing these activities," Brawner said. "There are more of them."

Some of the suspects have been living in the Philippines since 2002 and did not have any criminal records, immigration bureau spokesperson Dana Sandoval told reporters.

Security officials paraded the five suspects, handcuffed to each other, before the media along with the confiscated "military-grade" spying equipment.

Beijing claims most of the strategic South China Sea despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.

The Chinese embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to AFP's request for comment on the fresh arrests.

On January 25, it described the spying allegations against Deng as "baseless speculation and accusation."

The mission said it asked for its consul to visit the detained man, and urged Manila to "protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens in the Philippines."