Tarlac mayor told: Account for cash, motorbikes from alleged Chinese ‘spies’
CLARK FREEPORT ZONE—The Tarlac City Council did not authorize Mayor Ma. Cristina Angeles to accept a P500,000 cash donation and 15 motorcycles from Chinese nationals suspected of being spies for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Vice Mayor Genaro Mendoza told the Inquirer on Wednesday.
Mendoza, who presides over the legislative council, said in a phone interview that Angeles did not also request authorization from the council to accept the donations.
Ma. Theresa Pangilinan, the council secretary, said in a separate phone interview that she reviewed council resolutions from 2021 to 2024 but saw no record authorizing the acceptance of these donations.
“We’ve found nothing as of Wednesday. But we are still double-checking,” Pangilinan said.
A July 2022 article published on the social media account of a CCP-led body engaged in “united front work” showed one of the accused Chinese spies handing a check worth P500,000 to Angeles.
Angeles, in a statement, confirmed receiving the 15 motorcycles “in good faith.”
Volunteer group
The motorcycles were intended to be distributed to the city police, the city’s public safety office, and the provincial government at five units each.
However, former Rep. Victor Yap claimed that the provincial government, where his sister Susan is the current governor, did not receive its share.
Angeles also acknowledged receiving P100,000, but cited Resolution No. IX-33-486, which authorized her to accept a P200,000 donation from the “Qiaoxing Volunteer Group of the People’s Republic of China.”
Dated Sept. 5, 2023, the resolution was in response to her Aug. 30, 2023, request for authority to accept the donation for “various city government programs.”
Angeles said the money was spent by the Department of Education on dental kits for schoolchildren and that a P200,000 donation made in 2023 has so far not been used.
Mendoza urged Angeles to “clarify and enlighten us on these matters in the name of transparency and accountability, which she claims to be her policy.”
Yap declined to comment further on the controversy surrounding Angeles, who is his opponent for a congressional seat in the upcoming elections.
Aerial surveillance
However, he noted, “it’s a public interest issue now.”
Reuters reported last week that four Chinese nationals arrested by Philippine authorities in January had led civic groups overseen by the CCP’s foreign influence network.
Wang Yongyi, Wu Junren, Cai Shaohuang and Chen Haitao were among five Chinese men detained by Philippine investigators in late January for allegedly gathering images and maps of Philippine naval forces near the South China Sea.
The five men had flown drones to spy on the Philippines’ navy, said the National Bureau of Investigation, adding that it had found photos and maps of sensitive sites and vessels on their phones.
Tarlac is home to major military bases, including one used by the Philippines and the United States for live-fire exercises during annual military drills, but photos of bases in the area were not among the sites that the NBI said were found on the men’s devices.
Reuters quoted a senior NBI official as saying that the men had been charged with espionage, which carries a prison term of up to 20 years.
But China’s foreign ministry, in a statement to Reuters, said China required its citizens to abide by local laws and that civic groups “spontaneously formed and self-managed by the relevant Chinese citizens … have no affiliation with the Chinese government.”
Security threat
The Philippines has arrested at least eight alleged Chinese spies in recent weeks.
Their detentions have fueled tensions between the two countries, which share a maritime border and have conflicting claims over territory in the South China Sea.
The recent arrests demonstrate the Philippines’ “need to reconfigure its national security outlook beyond traditional or conventional security threats,” said Don McLain Gill, an international relations expert at Manila’s De La Salle University.
Wang, Wu, Cai and Chen lead the Philippine China Association of Promotion of Peace and Friendship, a civic group founded in 2016.
The association’s leaders in 2022 formed a second entity, the Qiaoxing Volunteer Group.
The groups share a website that advertises their CCP affiliation and both are overseen by the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese (ACFROC), a CCP-led body engaged in united front work, as Beijing terms influence operations.
The website appeared to no longer be accessible as of Feb. 28.
United Front Work Department officials have spoken at the Philippine-based groups’ meetings, according to the website and an ACFROC social media account, with the latest event occurring in May 2024.
Philippine officials have raised concerns about United Front activities, with the military chief warning in July that the United Front was “slowly entering our country and trying to influence various sectors of our society.”
