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‘SPIES’ FALL. National Bureau of Investigation director Jaime Santiago and Armed Forces of the Philippines chief Gen. Romeo Brawner (both seated) on Thursday (Jan. 30, 2025) present the five alleged Chinese spies arrested during operations in various locations from Jan. 24 to 25. The five were accused of engaging in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance operations using sophisticated equipment. (PNA photo by Ben Pulta)

MANILA, Philippines — The National Bureau of Investigation has arrested five more suspected Chinese spies who were allegedly monitoring Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and Philippine Navy activities in Palawan, including the resupply of troops in the West Philippine Sea (WPS).

Based on the NBI’s surveillance and accounts of witnesses, NBI Director Jaime Santiago told a news conference on Thursday that the group had set up high-resolution solar-powered cameras pointed at the waters off Palawan where PCG ships must pass in going to and coming from the WPS.

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“That may be why, if you have noticed before our resupply ships can deliver food and supplies in the WPS, there are already [China Coast Guard] ships waiting for them,” Santiago said.

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Armed Forces of the Philippines chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. said that based on the NBI’s record of the group’s activities, the rotation and resupply (Rore) missions may have been compromised as early as 2023.

Santiago and Brawner were referring to the Rore missions for troops at Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal west of Palawan, which the China Coast Guard had been blocking, sometimes violently, before Manila and Beijing reached an agreement last year to prevent future confrontations.

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At the press conference, the NBI presented the five suspected spies who were identified as Cai Shaohuang, 52; Wang Yong Yi, 52; Wu Jun Ren, 62; Wu Chengting, 38; and Chen Haitao, 36. They were arrested separately on Jan. 24 and Jan. 25 and are facing charges of violating Commonwealth Act No. 616, the 1941 antiespionage law, in relation to Republic Act No. 10175, or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.

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The NBI said the five men had been working with Deng Yuanqing, 39, the alleged Chinese spy who was arrested on Jan. 17 in Makati City along with two Filipino cohorts.

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Deng and the two Filipinos were caught operating a device that allegedly mapped critical infrastructures of the country, including military sites and power installations.

The NBI arrested Chen and Wu Chengting on Jan. 24 at Terminal 3 of Ninoy Aquino International Airport following their morning flight from Palawan.

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The NBI said it received an intelligence report in November 2024 that Chen and Wu had been taking drone shots of ports, and PCG and Navy ships in Palawan.

According to Santiago, the two men returned to Manila to meet up with Wang and Wu Jun Ren, who were arrested in Intramuros and Binondo, respectively, later on the same day. They were supposed to receive the surveillance data or intelligence report from Chen and Wu before they were arrested, he said.

The following day, the NBI arrested Cai, who served as the group’s “field commander,” in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental province, the NBI chief said.

Monitored sites

Among the areas in Palawan that were monitored by the suspects were a naval detachment at Oyster Bay in Puerto Princesa, where ships heading to the WPS sailed from, and at Kahumat-an Beach, which faces the waters where these vessels would be passing through.

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Santiago said the group also monitored coast guard stations, the Antonio Bautista Air Base, the Del Pilar Class PS 16 naval base, and Navy dockyards.

According to NBI Cybercrime Division chief Jeremy Lotoc, the suspects were able to gather information by posing as “harmless members” of legitimate organizations, such as the Qiaoxing Volunteer Group of the Philippines and the Philippine China Association for the Promotion of Peace and Friendship Inc.

“They would establish contact with individuals who have access to valuable information without revealing their real identity,” Lotoc said, adding that the suspects used multiple identification (ID) cards with different names.

As members of these organizations, the suspects would then conduct activities, such as medical missions, sometimes with local politicians or government officials, that would allow them access to beaches and other strategic areas where they could set up surveillance cameras.

“As early as 2023, this group was monitored in Kahamut-an Beach in Barangay Buenavista,” Lotoc said. “They tried to rent a portion of that beach and tried to install that kind of CCTV on that beach because, as you can see right in front of that area, that is the only place where ships can pass through.”

Later in 2024, the group also tried to lease a portion of Sun Seas Beach Resort at Barangay Buliluyan, in Bataraza, Palawan, to install another CCTV camera without the owner’s consent. Lotoc said Barangay Buliluyan is within the vicinity of a site used under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement between the Philippines and the United States, and PCG vessels coming from WPS missions can also be monitored from the area.

‘Data collection’

“In other words, the group is undoubtedly engaged and continuously engaging in data collection and disclosure of that data to outsiders. Those data affect the national defense, definitely to the injury of the Philippines,” Lotoc said.

Aside from Palawan, Lotoc said the suspects also operated from a high-rise condominium in Metro Manila and had set up cameras powerful enough to monitor PCG ships entering and leaving Manila Bay.

By monitoring these areas in Metro Manila and Palawan, the group can track the routes, even the personnel, in the Rore missions in the WPS, according to Brawner.

“Well of course, they can see when Coast Guard ships leave and come back. So, they can monitor the number of Coast Guard ships that are in the West Philippine Sea at any one time. They can check the pattern,” he said.

“They can see when these ships enter Manila Bay, how many days it will stay. They are able to find out all the details of the resupply missions. And all of these details can be used for their planning purposes for whatever operations that they want to do in the future,” he said.

According to Bureau of Immigration spokesperson Dana Sandoval, the five men have been staying in the Philippines before 2023 and had been traveling to China.

“When we checked their records, we can say that they have embedded themselves in our society,” she said. “Some of them have been working here with a working visa, some of them have wives who are Filipinos. The earliest record we have on them was in 2002.”

Santiago refuted claims by Deng’s Filipino wife, Noemi, that her husband was not a graduate of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) University of Science and Technology (UST) in Nanjing, China, which the NBI earlier disclosed.

She insisted that he was only a road surveyor working for a company, which she was unable to identify, involved in the manufacturing of self-driving cars.

“They say that Deng Yuanqing is just an ordinary surveyor working for a company that manufactures autonomous cars. What company is it? Why can’t they name the company?” Santiago said.

It was a reference to the notorious “behest loans” granted to individuals or corporations favored by powerful government officials.

About a year later, all that optimism disappeared into thin air, along with its Greenbelt showroom, which was once a vibrant outlet showcasing different e-scooter models. This space—meant to attract heavy foot traffic—has been padlocked very recently.

‘Military grade’

He cited an entry in the website ScholarGPS—https://scholargps.com/scholars/83391632866114/yuanqing-deng—that purportedly identifies Deng as a graduate of PLA UST, specializing in “control engineering.”

He also objected to claims by Chinese-Filipino civic leader Teresita Ang See that the equipment seized from Deng was just a commercial device available online.

Santiago said what could be bought from online shops such as Shopee and Lazada were commercial-grade devices. “But what we got from them, specifically the Lidar, what we call Light Detection and Ranging … that was military-grade,” he said.

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The Chinese Embassy in Manila had protested against the spy tag on Deng and urged the government not to make “baseless” allegations. It has not yet issued any statement on the latest arrests.pinaswin88

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