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MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines expressed alarm on Saturday over the arrest of three Filipinos in China on suspicion of espionage, saying they were ordinary citizens and the arrests could be retaliation for Manila's crackdown against alleged Chinese spies.
Chinese authorities arrested the Filipinos and accused them of working for the Philippine intelligence agency to gather classified information on its military, the state-run China Daily reported earlier this week, citing state security officials. It said the three had confessed to the crime.
The Philippines' National Security Council disputed Beijing's accusations, saying the three were former recipients of a government scholarship programme created under an agreement between the southern Chinese province of Hainan and the western Philippine province of Palawan.
"They are ordinary Filipino citizens with no military training who merely went to China at the invitation of the Chinese government to study," National Security Council spokesperson Jonathan Malaya said in a statement.
"They are law-abiding citizens with no criminal records and were vetted and screened by the Chinese government prior to their arrival there," he added.
The Chinese embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside office hours.
Hainan and Palawan both face the South China Sea, a strategic waterway where the two countries have staked out overlapping claims and have clashed frequently over the past two years.
"The arrests can be seen as a retaliation for the series of legitimate arrests of Chinese agents and accomplices by Philippine law enforcement," Malaya said.
Philippine authorities have arrested at least a dozen Chinese nationals in the last three months on suspicion of espionage, accusing them of illegally obtaining sensitive information on military camps and critical infrastructure that could undermine Manila's national security and defence.
China has expansive territorial claims in the South China Sea that overlap with the exclusive economic zones of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. In 2016, an international arbitral tribunal ruled China's claims have no basis under international law, although Beijing does not recognise that ruling.
(Reporting by Mikhail Flores; Editing by Edmund Klamann)
