That the suspects in the recent killing of a Chinese Pogo worker were found to have Chinese military identification cards with them indicates that the fears expressed by some that these Chinese workers are part of China’s People’s Liberation Army conducting espionage activities in the country have factual basis, and thus not just products of wild imagination as claimed by National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr.
This likewise gives credence to the suspicion that the Chinese nationals who secretly entered a naval facility of the Philippines that was not part of any tour package and who took pictures in the dead of night were there for that precise purpose.
Those Chinese nationals should have been immediately arrested (as what became the fate of a Chinese national caught taking photos at a US naval base) and charged for espionage under Article 117 of the Revised Penal Code, for without authority, they entered a naval establishment of the Philippines, took photographs, and thus obtained information of a confidential nature relative to the defense of the Philippine archipelago.
In the absence of evidence to the contrary, their criminal intent is conclusively presumed from the commission of their patently unlawful act. It is most strange why our military establishment did not charge them, considering their most serious threat to our national security, in light of rumors that Chinese soldiers are, in fact, entering the country in disguise, and who may be called to action at the opportune time to accomplish some sinister plan most clearly against the interests of our people.
More strange is the decision of this administration, through former AFP chief Benjamin Madrigal Jr., to sign a deal Mislatel (renamed Dito Telecommunity), which will allow this China-backed telco to set up equipment and infrastructure in military camps and installations, and consequently allow, too, its Chinese personnel to enter our military establishments, surely giving them the opportunity to obtain information of a confidential nature relative to the defense of the Philippine archipelago, which clearly may be used to the injury of the Philippines.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, who is the approving authority to the said deal and who should know better, has been reported to have expressed the view that there is nothing wrong with the deal, and that he will probably sign the agreement.
SEVERO BRILLANTES
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