China infiltrates key sectors in Philippines, AFP says

Media, Schools and Business in the Crosshairs – Brawner

China has infiltrated various sectors in the country, including academia and local government units, said Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr.

“They are slowly entering our country and trying to influence different sectors of our society, including the education sector, business, even the media and local government units,” Brawner told a news conference at Camp Aguinaldo after a command conference attended by President Marcos on Thursday.

Manila Standard reached out to the Chinese Embassy in the Philippines for comment but did not receive any statement by the time of going to press.

Brawner said China is allegedly using POGOs to enter the Philippines.

Brawner said Beijing is allegedly carrying out infiltration through a “United Front Works” strategy.

“Our response to their United Front Works will be to try to gather information from all of them and then provide the appropriate agency with the appropriate type of information,” he said.

“For example, what we did in operations against illegal POGO facilities – those that were legal POGOs, but suddenly became illegal because of other activities they conduct within their structures. This is what we do,” he added.

Brawner said China also uses fake news as a tactic, which the AFP is countering by introducing the MULAT communications plan for the West Philippine Sea.

“We need to wake up and realize what is happening inside our country. Hopefully, our countrymen will accept it. The West Philippine Sea is our ocean, our rights and our future. What we are doing is not only for the present but also for the future generations of the Philippines,” Brawner said.

Earlier, Senator Risa Hontiveros raised the possibility that Chinese military spies may be seeking Philippine citizenship through fraud.

National Intelligence Coordination Agency (NICA) Director Ricardo de Leon said all information was being verified, including the possibility that POGOs could have been a Chinese “Trojan horse.”

Cruz noted that communication equipment confiscated during the POGO raid in Pasay City contained foreign characters that experts said could have been used to communicate directly with China.

Suspended Bamban Mayor Alice Guo, who is linked to the POGO operation carried out in Tarlac, has also been accused of being a Chinese spy or “asset.”

She denied the accusations, but the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) confirmed that the mayor and Chinese passport holder Guo Hua Ping had the same fingerprints.

Cagayan de Oro City Representative Rufus Rodriguez also called on the Department of Foreign Affairs to “be on the lookout for Trojan horses” after the Bureau of Immigration revealed that only one in three Chinese residents of Cagayan who were granted student visas are currently enrolled in a university in the province.

Of the 1,516 Chinese who were granted student visas by a major university in Cagayan, only 485 are currently enrolled and only 96 of them have attended classes, Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco said.

“Let us conduct more comprehensive and rigorous vetting of Chinese visa applicants for the sake of peace and order in the country and our national security. Let us beware of the Trojan horses among them,” Rodriguez said.