Año to gov’t employees: Beware of spy job offers
National Security Adviser Eduardo Año on Friday warned Filipinos, particularly government employees, to be wary of suspicious job offers that could be used by foreign intelligence agencies to recruit them as spies.
Año said foreign intelligence operations often begin with seemingly legitimate employment opportunities before individuals are gradually asked to provide sensitive information from within government institutions.
“They always make an effort to recruit sources and insiders in our government,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a Stratbase ADR Institute forum in Makati City. “That’s why we are asking our countrymen, especially our government employees, to be vigilant. Look at the job offers that are being said.”
Año urged individuals who encounter suspicious recruitment attempts to report them immediately to their superiors so authorities could respond quickly.
The warning came after the government confirmed it had dismantled an alleged espionage network involving Filipinos believed to be linked to Chinese intelligence operations.
Rear Adm. Roy Vincent Trinidad, the Philippine Navy spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea said three civilians were caught allegedly providing sensitive defense-related information to foreign contacts believed to be Chinese.
Insider Threat Program
“All three of them are now under AFP control,” Trinidad told reporters, adding that they were given due process and were cooperative.
The two men and one woman are in their early to late 20s. One of the three was a Navy researcher, another was employed at the Department of National Defense and the third had a close relationship with a Philippine Coast Guard officer, he said.
Their activities were uncovered in 2025 through the National Security Council’s Insider Threat Program, which was launched in 2024 as part of the military’s shift toward external defense.
Trinidad said investigators, who worked “thousands of man-hours,” traced their interactions with their foreign contacts as far back as 2022 or 2023.
According to him, they were first contacted through online job platforms after they posted their credentials and résumés. They were asked to write articles or research pieces related to Philippine defense issues, including naval modernization, defense diplomacy and maritime operations.
Over time, their foreign handlers began directing them to gather more specific information and even asked them to photograph “any document lying around” and “forward emails if they had access to emails,” Trinidad said.
The three allegedly received payments through digital money transfers in amounts ranging from four digits to six digits in pesos, depending on the content submitted, he said.
Because of the nature of the information requested, the military believes the Chinese Communist Party was behind the espionage.
“The information being collected is linked to defense and security, to naval strategic plans and basing plans. That gives us logical reason to believe that our adversary in the West Philippine Sea is behind this,” Trinidad said.
Requested information
Some of the information requested involved military operations, and AFP and coast guard activities that could potentially endanger personnel deployed in the West Philippine Sea.
Trinidad said the information sought focused on Philippine defense strategy, naval basing plans and operations related to resupply missions in the West Philippine Sea.
He said all of the foreign handlers operated overseas, and one of them spoke English with a British or Australian accent.
Trinidad said the one who had close ties with a coast guard officer later expressed remorse about the work he had done for his foreign contact after realizing the possible harm it could cause on troops conducting operations in the West Philippine Sea.
A Navy officer was also approached by a foreigner but the officer recognized suspicious patterns in their communication and refused to cooperate, he said.
The AFP warned that the cases may represent only a fraction of ongoing foreign intelligence activities targeting Philippine defense institutions.
“This is only the tip of the iceberg,” Trinidad said.
PNP tightens intel
Año said that espionage activities began years before a provisional agreement between Manila and Beijing in 2024 on resupplying Filipino troops manning the BRP Sierra Madre on Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal.
In response to the reported espionage operation, the Philippine National Police said on Friday that it had tightened its own intelligence measures.
“We are taking proactive steps to ensure that all the information that includes efforts and plans relating to peace and order and national security are protected,” PNP chief Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. said in a statement on Friday.
Nartatez said the “foreign-directed espionage” operation was a “wake-up call for us to be extra-careful and to sustain the efforts in instilling professionalism in the organization that is anchored on patriotism and loyalty to our country and its people.”
Embassy: ‘Irresponsible’
The Chinese Embassy in Manila vehemently denied allegations that the individuals linked to Beijing were involved in the alleged espionage.
“We firmly oppose and strongly deplore irresponsible remarks made by certain Philippine agencies peddling so-called ‘Chinese spy’ narratives,” embassy spokesperson Ji Lingpeng said in a statement on Thursday. “Such accusations are malicious smears against China and yet another attempt to hype up the so-called ‘China threat’ rhetoric.”
He said the Philippines had “fabricated” a series of spy cases which he described as “a typical act of ill-intentioned association and politically motivated presumption of guilt in the absence of detailed information on the case and clear evidence.”
On arrested Mongolian
Ji cited the case of a Mongolian national who was arrested for alleged links with the Chinese military but who was found to have “no affiliation with China whatsoever.”
Mongolian student pilot Bold-Erdene Boldbaatar was arrested on Feb. 12 for alleged immigration offenses, including failure to disclose his alleged military service and aviation training in China.
Philippine authorities said he had obtained a license as a jet fighter pilot from the People’s Liberation Army Air Force Aviation University.
He was allegedly taking aerial photos of Iba Airport and the Palauig River area of Palauig town, one of the Zambales municipalities closest to Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal, or Bajo de Masinloc. —WITH A REPORT FROM JASON SIGALES AND INQUIRER RESEARCH
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