“The trio are law-abiding citizens and recipients of Hainan government scholarship under the sisterhood agreement between Palawan and Hainan”
Fake news and the arrest of suspected spies have once more reared their ugly heads, while Filipino voters prepare their short list for the May 12 elections on who leaders they would want to lead them during the next three years.
This week, the government, through the Department of Foreign Affairs, geared up as officials tried best efforts to get a lawyer to visit three Filipinos detained in Hainan, China over espionage allegations.
DFA Undersecretary for Migrant Affairs Eduardo de Vega told reporters the Philippine government has funded a local lawyer for the latter’s services, through whom Manila has requested strongly that he be allowed to see the three Filipinos where they are detained in Hainan, a tropical southern province known for its thriving tourism industry.
The three have been identified as David Servanez, Albert Endencia and Natalie Plizardo, arrested in China on allegations of spying for Philippine intelligence.
We know the trio, law-abiding citizens and recipients of Hainan government scholarship under the sisterhood agreement between Palawan and Hainan.
Like other Filipino groups similarly alarmed, we raise doubts regarding the purported confession of the three, obviously made under extreme pressure following the narrative of the Chinese government which mentioned “Philippines Intelligence Agency or Philippine Spy Intelligence Services “ which are non-existing government agencies.
“The ‘confessions’ appear to be scripted, strongly suggesting they were not made freely,” said NSC Assistant Director General Jonathan Malaya in a statement on the same day the footage was viewed on April 5.
We also find that incident inanely farcical, following the arrest and detention – the latest in a string of such cases – of two Chinese nationals accused of espionage-related activities close to what military sources have described as sensitive areas.
Three Filipino accomplices had assisted, driving the Chinese pair in the vicinity of the presidential palace in Malacanang, the US embassy compound, the headquarters of the Armed Forces known as Camp Aguinaldo, and Villamor Airbase, home to the Philippine Air Force.
They had used an international mobile subscriber identity catcher – a device that mimics cellular towers to collect information and messages from the air within a one-to-three-kilometer radius.
The National Bureau of Investigation said “thousands” of critical pieces of data had been gathered by all five men before their arrest – dismissed by Beijing as “smear campaigns.”
This was after a footage of the three Filipinos being questioned by Chinese police was aired by Chinese state television CCTV on April 5.
“The ‘confessions’ appear to be scripted, strongly suggesting that they were not made freely,” said NSC Assistant Director General Jonathan Malaya in a statement on the same day.
The DFA earlier on told Beijing the three Filipinos should be accorded due process and full respect of their rights in accordance with domestic law and the Philippine-China Consular Agreement.
Article 13 of the consular agreement signed in 2009 states: “A consular officer shall be entitled to visit a national of the sending State who is under detention, arrest or deprived of freedom by any other means, to converse or communicate with him in any language or dialect known to the detained national relating to his condition and his case and to arrange legal assistance for him.”
This is an undisguised form of bullying by the Chinese government and a diversionary tactic to justify the illegal detention of the three Filipinos
The claim of espionage is baseless, considered manufactured and part of a well planned smear campaign following the arrest of suspected Chinese spies recently by Philippine law enforcement agencies, raising serious concerns the move is a calculated act of retaliation.
This is a form of pressure to silence the Philippine government over regional issues especially in the West Philippine Sea, where Chinese ships and Philippine vessels in the West Philippine Sea, clearly within the country’s 200-mile economic zone, have often been in a confrontation.
The Chinese arrest our people, spread propaganda and try to make themselves look like they are the real victims but actually sow lies and fear tactics.
We also stand behind Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela amid the criticism from former Press Attache Ado Paglinawan, who accused Tarriela and other national security officials of being under the United States influence, while questioning the legitimacy of Philippine maritime patrols in the WPS.
We find Paglinawan’s claim as irresponsible and damaging to our national security.
(The author is Chairman Emeritus of the People’s Alliance for Democracy and Reform, Liga Independencia ng Pilipinas and Alyansa ng Bayan para sa Kapayapaan at Demokrasya.)