Sen. Francis “Tol” Tolentino. Bibo Nueva España/Senate PRIB 

MANILA — The Philippines needs to implement a “regular assessment” of workers to ensure that they have not yet been recruited into China’s “wide espionage system,” a senator who claims to have evidence of China hiring a local PR firm for influence operations on social media, said.

The assessment needs to be conducted every three years, Sen. Francis Tolentino said days after a Senate inquiry into China's activities in the Philippines, including suspected electoral interference.

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“Gusto kong magkaroon ng assessment, evaluation [para] malaman kung sino yung talagang mga espiya na nakabaon sa ating pamahalaan, sa ating burukrasya,” the senator said in a media forum.

(I want there to be an assessment and evaluation to see who really are spies embedded in the government, in our bureaucracy)

Tolentino — a former member of Rodrigo Duterte-led PDP-Laban, which in 2017 signed a cooperation agreement with the Communist Party of China — said state workers need to go through "regular assessment, vetting, evaluation of one’s background."

Tolentino, who chairs the Senate Special Committee on Philippine Maritime and Admiralty Zones, said he is convinced that Beijing has already sowed spies in various areas in the Philippines, including the private sector.

“Kahit siguro sa media, sa malalaking ahensya baka napromote na into division chief, baka director, baka assistant secretary level pa na nandoon na, matagal nang nagtratrabaho,” he added.

(Even in media there may be some. In the big agencies, they may already have been promoted to division chief or director, or assistant secretary. They may have been working there for years)

Several security and maritime officials in the Philippines earlier called out several Filipino vloggers for supposedly peddling China’s fase narratives regarding the West Philippine Sea.

'INFILTRATION' NARRATIVES

Narratives of infiltration have been used in the past, most recently during the Duterte administration, to discredit critics and suppress dissent, and to influence politics.

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency prepared supposed "narco-lists" ahead of the 2019 and 2022 elections, supposedly to help educate voters against officials the agency linked to the drug trade.

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In April 2024, National Security Council Assistant Director General Jonathan Malaya, also formerly of PDP-Laban, said activist groups like Bagong Alyansang Makabayan and Pamalakaya that are opposed to US troop presence in the Philippines were "following the Beijing line." 

He also implied that the groups are participants in the communist armed struggle.

“Sa ngayon po siguro, sa lahat ng sektor, may nakabaon na sleeper cell, naghihintay lang… Hindi natin alam ano na extent nito,” Tolentino said Saturday.

(Right now, it's possible that there are sleeper cells in all sectors, just waiting. We don't know the extent of this)

'ELECTORAL INTERFERENCE'

Sen. Tolentino, a reeelctionist, also alleged that Beijing may be trying to influence the upcoming elections to ensure that pro-China senatorial candidates will have more seats in Congress.

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China has protested passage of Republic Act 12065, or the Philippine Archipelagic Sea Lanes Act, and may be moving to have it repealed, Tolentino also alleged.

The law, which Tolentino authored, holds that the Philippines recognizes the rights and privileges of foreign vessels and aircraft in its maritime zones but reserves the right to take necessary legal and diplomatic actions against States whose vessels and aircraft do not abide by domestic policies.

A spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry has denied allegations that Beijing is interested in interfering in the Philippines’ midterm elections next month.

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