SBMA probes Grande Island lease, opposes DND takeover
SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) has launched its own investigation following the recent arrest of suspected Chinese spies on Grande Island.
SBMA communications head Armie Llamas said SBMA chair and administrator Eduardo Aliño, in a recent board meeting, had instructed the agency to review details concerning the island resort’s lease.
“It’s still a Philippine-registered company but Chinese-owned. SBMA has not yet given its consent to the change in ownership,” Llamas told the Inquirer on Thursday.
However, she did not confirm whether the resort’s owner was among those arrested.
On Wednesday, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) presented six Chinese nationals apprehended on the island.
Spies?
According to the NBI, intelligence reports from the Armed Forces of the Philippines on March 17 indicated that the suspects were conducting covert intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations on critical infrastructures in Central Luzon.
Eyewitness accounts and subsequent investigations revealed that the individuals were disguising their activities as recreational fishing while using high-tech drones, allegedly for surveillance of naval assets, including those from allied nations passing near the island.
Grande Island provides a strategic vantage point overlooking key sea lanes in the West Philippine Sea, including Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal, allowing observation of naval movements in and out of Subic Bay during maritime patrols and joint exercises.
Authorities identified one of the arrested individuals as Qiu Feng, whose real name is Ye Tianwu (also known as Qing Feng), with an outstanding arrest warrant for violating Republic Act No. 8799, the Securities Regulation Code, issued by the Regional Trial Court Branch 63 in Tarlac City.
On March 19, NBI agents, alongside AFP intelligence units and SBMA law enforcers, served Tianwu’s warrant and conducted a hot pursuit operation.
Tianwu was taken into custody along with five other suspects: He Peng (aka Nan Ke), Xu Xining, Ye Xiaocan, Dick Ang and Su Anlong, along with their Filipino bodyguard, Melvin Aguillon, who was found in possession of an unregistered firearm. All were detained at the NBI headquarters in Manila.
Authorities confiscated fake Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) documents, falsified identification cards, a 9-millimeter firearm with 16 rounds of ammunition and electronic devices containing surveillance photos and videos. Among the files recovered were images of a US naval vessel and Subic’s naval operating base, which had been shared with Chinese contacts via social media.
A document in Chinese, detailing the dates, times and vessels entering and leaving the Freeport, was also found.
Inquest
The suspects were presented for inquest before the Office of the Provincial Prosecutor in Bataan for violations of Commonwealth Act No. 616 (Espionage Law), Articles 172 (falsification by private individual and use of falsified documents) and 178 (using fictitious name and concealing true name) of the Revised Penal Code, RA 10591 (Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act), and the Commission on Elections gun ban.
Last week, the Department of National Defense (DND) released a statement advocating for the transformation of Grande and Chiquita Islands into military reservations, following the arrest of the Chinese suspects.
The defense department warned that the activities on the island could be linked to a larger network posing a serious national security threat. It claimed that foreign nationals were using Grande Island under the guise of private enterprises to conduct espionage.
Military reservation
The SBMA has also reiterated its opposition to the DND’s proposal to convert Grande Island and other Freeport areas into a military reservation.
Lawyer Ramon Agregado, SBMA senior deputy administrator for support services, said the agency had already sent a letter to Malacañang in February, asserting its authority over Grande Island, Chiquita Island, and the adjacent Nabasan area.
In the letter, obtained by the Inquirer on Wednesday, the SBMA urged the government to block the presidential proclamation requested by the DND to convert the area into the Philippine Navy’s main operating base.
The SBMA cited RA 7227, the Bases Conversion Act of 1992, which demilitarized the former US naval base and repurposed it for economic and commercial use.
“To establish a military base within the Subic Bay Freeport Zone by mere proclamation would be illegal as it negates a valid and existing legislative act of Congress,” the letter stated.
The agency also highlighted that existing locators and tenants occupy these areas, and the issuance of a presidential proclamation would impair their contracts, which the Philippine Constitution prohibits.
Agregado further stressed SBMA’s mandate to convert the former military base into a Freeport and its responsibility to protect not only commercial interests but also the environment.
In the same letter, SBMA Ecology head Ameth Dela Llana said that both the agency and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) recognize the island’s ecological value.
Dela Llana confirmed that a memorandum of agreement with DENR has been approved to establish a marine research station on the island’s western side, facing Chiquita Island.
“This initiative will enhance marine life monitoring, research and conservation efforts,” she said.
