The National Bureau of Immigration (NBI) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) formally presented on Thursday five alleged Chinese nationals who were reportedly conducting espionage activities.

The suspects were identified as Wu Cheng, Haitao Chen, Wu Ju Ren, Cai Shaohuang, and Wa Yong Yi.

This comes after last week's arrest of the first alleged Chinese spy in Makati City identified as Deng Yuanqing.

In a press briefing, NBI Director Jaime Santiago said that the government was not targeting Chinese.

“Let us also clarify that they are not arrested because they are Chinese. They are arrested because they are violating our Commonwealth law which states that if you survey our facilities without authority, that is violation of our law. They just happen to be Chinese,” Santiago said.

He said the suspects installed military-grade closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras in Palawan.

“Based on the extrajudicial confession of our witnesses, they are monitoring Palawan. They installed a CCTV camera, a high-resolution, solar-powered camera that is focused on the waters where our ships head to the West Philippine Sea and back,” Santiago said.

Santiago said that among the areas that the CCTV cameras were monitoring were the Naval Detachment Oyster Bay sa Puerto Princesa, Coast Guard Station, Antonio Bautista Airbase, and Del Pilar Class PS16 Naval Base.

He added that they were members of Qiaoxing Volunteer Group of the Philippines and Philippine-China Association of Promotion of Peace and Friendship, Inc., and were even associated with some government officials.

The NBI said that based on the data they gathered, the suspects would meet in Palawan once a month.

Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff Gen. Romeo Brawner, Jr. said the suspects were sending information on the Philippine vessels in real-time.

“The information are actually being sent in real time and not delayed,” Brawner said.

“That could be why in the past ships were always aware when we deploy Coast Guard and naval resupply ships,” he added.

Asked if he could confirm that the espionage activities were sponsored by the Chinese government, Brawner said: “We cannot conclude that. What we are focusing on is the act itself.”

“We know for a fact that these images, these videos, are being sent, transmitted somewhere else,” he said.

"Even the configuration of our naval base could be clearly seen in the image captured by the drone. So of course, this information is very dangerous. We consider them very dangerous to national security. Because if this information falls into the wrong hands, this could be dangerous for our personnel in the base and also those on board our ships," Brawner said.

He said the three suspects were caught at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA); one in Intramuros; one in Binondo, and one in Dumaguete on January 24 and 25.

According to Bureau of Immigration spokesperson Dana Sandoval, the Chinese nationals have no records of previous crimes and have “embedded themselves in society”.

She said the earliest record they have of the five was in 2002.

She added that they had working visas and married to Filipina wives. Jaspearl Tan/DMS