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Helen Flores - The Philippine Star
April 8, 2025 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — President Marcos has assured that all necessary assistance will be extended to three Filipinos arrested in China for alleged espionage, even as Malacañang declined to comment on claims that the arrests may be in retaliation for Manila’s crackdown against alleged Chinese spies.
“There is always an instruction to help our Filipino citizens abroad facing these kinds of charges. Legal assistance will always be given, all the necessary help and assistance will be provided,” Undersecretary Claire Castro of the Palace press office said yesterday at a briefing.
Chinese authorities arrested three Filipinos – David Servañez, Albert Endencia and Nathalie Plizardo – and accused them of working for a Philippine intelligence agency to gather classified information on its military.
In a statement on Saturday, the National Security Council (NSC) said the arrest of the three for alleged spying may be in retaliation for the recent arrest for espionage of several Chinese nationals in the country.
Asked for comment on the NSC’s statement, Castro said there is no concrete evidence yet if it was really an act of retaliation by the other country.
“We will not say that because there is no final investigation on that matter. But there is still ongoing investigation on that, and we will just defer all the details to DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs) and to DND (Department of National Defense),” she said.
The Security Council’s assistant director general, Jonathan Malaya, earlier said the supposed confessions of the arrested Filipinos appear to have been obtained through coercion.
The agencies the three are allegedly being accused of working for – the Philippine Intelligence Agency and the Philippine Spy Intelligence Services – do not exist.
“Given the limited information released by Chinese media, the arrests can be seen as a retaliation for the series of legitimate arrests of Chinese agents and accomplices by Philippine law enforcement and counter-intelligence agencies in recent months,” Malaya said.
Servañez, Endencia and Plizardo were former recipients of the Hainan Government Scholarship Program established under the sisterhood agreement between the provinces of Hainan and Palawan, according to Malaya.
The program provided scholarships to 50 residents of Palawan at the Hainan National University, he said.
“They are ordinary Filipino citizens with no military training who merely went to China at the invitation of the Chinese government to study,” Malaya said.
After completing their studies, the three reportedly returned to China as migrant workers.
Missing for months
Servañez, Endencia and Plizardo have been missing for months, according to a local official from Palawan, their home province.
Palawan Board Member Ryan Dagsa Maminta, in an interview with “Storycon” on One News yesterday, confirmed that Servañez’s family lost communication with him as early as October last year.
“The other two, that was the recent arrest… just this year, (around) early January or February,” he added, referring to Endencia and Plizardo.
While there had been initial information about the arrest of the three, Maminta said their families were able to confirm their arrest only last week, when it was reported by Chinese state media.
He denied that the three had links with the Philippine security sector that would warrant suspicion that they are involved in espionage.
“We’re also wondering why it reached that point, why they ended up getting arrested,” he said in Filipino.
“They have no experience (in the security sector). They have no capability, no training to do something like that,” he added.
‘Hostage diplomacy’
Meanwhile, Akbayan party-list yesterday raised alarm over the arrest of the three Filipinos, warning that the detentions may be part of a “hostage diplomacy” tactic aimed at pressuring the Philippine government into a prisoner exchange.
In a statement, Akbayan first nominee Chel Diokno said the arrests smacked of a “palit-ulo” (exchanging people) scheme, calling it a “dangerous ploy to extract concessions” following the apprehension of Chinese nationals suspected of spying in the Philippines.
“This has all the hallmarks of hostage diplomacy,” Diokno said. “Our fellow Filipinos are being used as bargaining chips to secure the release of Chinese nationals caught engaging in espionage in our country. We must not allow our citizens to be treated as pawns.”
Akbayan also questioned the authenticity of video confessions released by Chinese state media, in which the Filipinos allegedly admitted links to fictitious agencies.
Diokno said the footage appeared scripted and possibly coerced.
“We urge the Department of Foreign Affairs to issue a travel advisory warning Filipinos of the risk of arbitrary detention in China,” Diokno said.
He also called on the Department of the Interior and Local Government to review existing sister-city and sister-province agreements with Chinese localities, warning of possible national security risks. — Mark Ernest Villeza, Janvic Mateo
