A Chinese national was arrested while operating a surveillance device near the offices of the Philippine election commission, authorities said yesterday, less than two weeks before the country’s midterm polls.
The man was allegedly using an “IMSI catcher,” a device capable of mimicking a cell tower and snatching messages from the air in a 1km to 3km radius.
Two Chinese men detained in February were accused of using such a device while driving near sensitive government and military locations in Manila.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Philippine National Bureau of Investigation spokesman Ferdinand Lavin told reporters that the latest arrest was made on Tuesday near the offices of the Philippine Commission on Elections (Comelec) after agents confirmed the IMSI was in operation.
“When we made the arrest, that was the third time he had come to Comelec,” Lavin said, adding that other locations visited included the Philippine Supreme Court, the Philippine Department of Justice and the US embassy.
The arrested man held a passport issued by Macau, Lavin said, while a hired Filipino driver who cooperated with the operation was not detained.
Beijing said it was in communications with Manila to learn more about the situation while denying any attempt to tamper with Philippine elections.
“We will not and have no interest in interfering in such internal affairs of the Philippines,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Guo Jiakun (郭嘉昆) said when asked about the arrest at a news conference. “We also advise individual politicians in the Philippines not to take the chance to hype up issues related to China, make something out of nothing and seize the opportunity to profit.”
In other news, the Philippine Department of National Defense said that it is reviewing at least 50 security agreements, possibly including those with China, to weed out those that do not align with the national interest.
“If a country theoretically is really misaligned with us, then it’s useless having a defense agreement,” Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro told reporters, adding that the review would cover deals on military exchanges, logistics, infrastructure and education.
Teodoro said that agreements with China “could be” included in the review.
Meanwhile, Manila yesterday signed an agreement with New Zealand allowing the deployment of troops on each other’s territory, a move aimed at bolstering security in a “deteriorating” strategic environment.
New Zealand Minister of Defence Judith Collins said that the deal reflected a commitment based on understanding “the risks to the international rules-based order.”
Both countries had “a real understanding that the strategic environment that we are operating in is deteriorating,” Collins said.
“There are those who follow international law and there are those who want to redefine it,” Teodoro said, referring to China’s so-called “nine-dash line” in the South China Sea.
“We need to deter this kind of unwanted behavior,” he said, adding that Manila and Wellington would work toward “military-to-military training.”
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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