In journalism, and especially in the beats I’ve been assigned to, there will be situations where you take a pause, make you second-guess yourself, and think: Wow, is this real life? 

It’s what I felt the first time I was embedded in the Philippines’ BRP Melchora Aquino for a resupply mission to the BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal. The closer we approached Ayungin, the closer the China Coast Guard (CCG) and the Chinese Maritime Militia (CCM) got to us. At one point, I could make out the faces of the CCG crew as they dutifully documented us documenting China’s aggressive actions in the Philippines’ own exclusive economic zone. 

It felt the same aboard the Navy’s BRP Andres Bonifacio as it took a group of embedded journalists around the West Philippine Sea during a maritime patrol. 

I felt the same way in 2016 and 2022, as presidential election results were coming in and trends indicated a clear winner. In 2016, I was at the headquarters of a losing candidate. In 2022, I was the anchor of Rappler’s live broadcast, reading out the initial results of an election that would eventually result in Ferdinand Marcos Jr. becoming the first majority-elected president since the ouster of his father and namesake, the dictator. 

But nothing, it seems, could have prepared me for how I should act or sound while speaking to Filipinos who had been recruited into an espionage network run by, according to security officials, Chinese people. I spoke to them separately over a period of four months for my investigative series.

PART 2 | Threats within: Filipino spies in denial
PART 3 | The price of stealing Philippines’ top security secrets

Of those four, only one — an officer of the Philippine Navy — said no to the Chinese offer. The three others — two of them young staff members of the Department of National Defense, and the third, someone who was close to the Philippine Coast Guard in Palawan — handed over analyses, information, and then, eventually, sensitive documents about the country’s security and defense plans to their Chinese handlers. 

In movies, there’s a trope where the main character breaks the fourth wall in media res and addresses the audience, “You might be wondering how I got here.” 

In the process of writing Rappler’s three-part exclusive series on the “spies among us” and how the government’s “Insider Threat Program” flagged and weeded out these Filipinos, I found myself too many times feeling exactly just that. 

Because what do you do when you come face to face with young Filipinos who have, unwittingly and then eventually wittingly, betrayed the country? 

So I said hi, and introduced myself. 

All of them were understandably tense — weary from years of concealing from friends and family their entanglements in exchange for cash, and even more tired from the emotional toll of finally being caught.  

Looking back at the transcripts of those conversations, I somehow managed to always ask the same first question: Can you tell me why you’re here and why you’re talking to me today? 

Perhaps it was my attempt to avoid being accusatory, even if I had known prior the gist of what they had done. Maybe it was tradecraft (the journalistic kind) that told me I was meant to put these people at ease to the best of my ability. 

Perhaps it was the only logical thing to ask in the face of dissonance. Espionage is often portrayed in fiction as glamorous and exciting. But before me stood people — some visibly distressed, several oddly nonchalant.

The first question would sometimes lead to outright confessions, and maybe some purging from within themselves. On one occasion, it led to an awkward chuckle. In another instance, the person immediately seized up. 

There is little left to be said about how eye-opening this story was — of the vulnerabilities in the Philippines’ security apparatus, how aggressive foreign nationals can be in accessing state secrets, and just how surprisingly mundane espionage can be.  

In the case of the three who said yes to the Chinese, espionage was carried out through a clever mix of generosity and cruelty. They were offered money for even the simplest, open-sourced submissions. They were offered even more for critical ones, to include documents that were restricted and sensitive. They were screamed at and berated when they could not deliver. 

There are many more stories left to be told, most of them unworthy or unfit to print — the challenge of keeping a story like this as close to my chest as possible, in the months that I was working on it. There are little and big stories Lawrence*, Alison*, Danny*, and Charles* (not their real names) chose to share with me, despite their initial hesitation and very obvious feelings of shame over what they did. 

How should you act when meeting Filipino spies? More importantly, how should you make sense of this first recorded instance of insiders trading in state secrets and critical information for pay? 

I have managed to settle into these as my answer: with empathy and an abundance of clarity. 

Lawrence*, young and a little self-conscious, told me towards the end of an hours-long interview: “I’m smart, I’m capable, but I still chose to do this. It’s shameful, to be honest. Sometimes it’s hard for me to imagine that I did this.” He said this, of course, after over two years of handing over sensitive documents to “Scott Chan.” 

Danny* said he felt guilty and feared for his own safety, too — before and even after he saw images of a damaged BRP Cape Engaño during a mission to the West Philippine Sea, the details of which he had divulged beforehand to Peter*, his handler. 

They were victims of a ruthless espionage scheme and of poverty and lack of opportunity — but they were also, no doubt, traitors. Two things can be true. Security officials recognize the duality of their status, even as all three remain under the military’s purview. 

This series is, for better or worse, only the tip of the iceberg. I look forward to diving deeper into how the Philippines is implementing its shift to external defense — be it through embeds with the PCG or the Philippine Navy to the West Philippine Sea, or through understanding how and why Filipinos managed to betray the country’s state secrets for pay.  

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RECOMMENDED STORIES

• Inside job: A Rappler exclusive investigation on the spies among us
• Ask Me Anything: Unearthing Chinese spy operations in the Philippines
• National Security Council: Chinese spying ops in PH ‘addressed, terminated’ 
• Año urges ‘caution’ over job offers, as PH probe into Chinese spy efforts continue
• In Manila, how China set up an influence, espionage network 

– Rappler.com