00:00Aside from no criminal record and no military training,
00:03the three Filipinos who were arrested for espionage were also screened by the government of China.
00:11According to the National Security Council,
00:13this could be a retaliation from China for not arresting the 10 Chinese who are here in the Philippines.
00:21Here is the report.
00:22The National Security Council warned of the arrest of the three Filipinos in China for espionage.
00:34According to the NSC, the so-called Filipinos are former recipients of the Hainan Government Scholarship Program
00:40under the Sisterhood Agreement between Hainan Province and Palawan,
00:44and ordinary citizens who have no military training and no criminal record,
00:50where they were screened by the government of China before going there.
00:54The NSC also questioned the edited video of the confession of the arrested Filipinos
01:00that could have been scripted or just made up,
01:03while it also mentioned the Philippine Intelligence Agency or Philippine Spy Intelligence Services.
01:09Now, there is no such agency of the government in the Philippines.
01:13Due to the limited information released to China,
01:16the NSC considers this as a retaliation for the arrest of the 10 Chinese nationals in the Philippines this year
01:25where some gadgets and nicknames were confiscated from them in different parts of the country.
01:31The priority now is the recognition of the Filipino citizens.
01:34While the NSC also criticized the opposition to the truth and compliance with international law,
01:40despite the concern of all our countrymen who are abroad,
01:45according to the Department of Foreign Affairs,
01:47the legal support is already being given along with the call for due process.
02:10Full respect to the rights of the said Filipinos in accordance with domestic law
02:15and the Philippines-China Consular Agreement.
02:18An expert from the Philippines in China has a priori.
02:22They should be careful because we know that tensions are rising when it comes to the situation of China and the Philippines.
02:31We are also asking our government to give all the needs of our countrymen
02:39who are being held hostage.
02:41Our fellow Filipinos cannot be held hostage when it comes to this situation.
02:46In the midst of this, D. E. Nica Balsa gave strength to the cyber security of the Philippines
02:52and to review the country's espionage law.
02:55The warfare that we are talking about has changed now.
03:00It's not just kinetic.
03:04We have seen non-kinetic warfare that includes cyber security and espionage.
03:10At the same time, our Espionage Act, this was during the Second World War.
03:15It hasn't been reviewed yet.
03:18I think we really need to review this
03:23because what we are using now is our Cyber Prevention Act when it comes to spying.
03:29Patrick de Azuz for Pambansan TV in Bagong, Philippines.
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