Arya News - National Bureau of Investigation spokesperson Ferdinand Lavin said they are conducting a forensic examination on the seized IMSI device to confirm if the suspect obtained any sensitive data.
MANILA – A Chinese national was arrested on Tuesday with a telephone eavesdropping device while roaming in Intramuros, particularly near the Commission on Elections (Comelec) headquarters.
Operatives of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) arrested the man who allegedly possessed an international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) catcher, a telephone eavesdropping device used for intercepting mobile phone traffic, according to NBI spokesperson Ferdinand Lavin.
The NBI has yet to disclose the identity of the Chinese national, who is found to have a passport from Macau, a special administrative region of China.
“He has been the subject of a surveillance operation. We were alarmed because he went to such a facility,” Lavin said in Filipino, during an ambush interview shortly after the arrest of the Chinese national.
“We don’t want to jump to conclusions that they are obtaining sensitive information,” Lavin said in the interview, noting that there are many government agencies in the area, most notably the Comelec headquarters in Palacio del Gobernador.
Lavin said they are conducting a forensic examination on the seized IMSI device to confirm if the suspect obtained any sensitive data.
No worries
However, Comelec chairman George Erwin Garcia assured the public that it is unlikely the suspect obtained any sensitive information.
“We don’t have any election data in our main [office], so there is nothing to be concerned about,” Garcia told reporters, adding that their main database is somewhere in Laguna.
Garcia added: “We ran the test, nothing was compromised on any of our systems.”
For poll watchdog Kontra Daya, the development should raise an alarm.
“The Comelec should be concerned as to why someone got arrested having such devices,” poll watchdog convenor Danilo Arao told INQUIRER.net in a text message, stressing that the poll body is now “apparently being surveilled by certain nefarious characters, whether local or domestic.”
Interference
“There is reason to be alarmed given the accusations of Chinese foreign interference,” Arao also said, adding that “further investigation is necessary to determine if there are any Filipinos involved in this obviously unauthorized stingray operation.”
The arrest of the Chinese national comes amid reports of alleged attempts by China to interfere in the upcoming midterm polls.
READ: EU observers say mission includes checking on PH poll interference claim
In a Senate hearing last Thursday, National Security Council Assistant Director General Jonathan Malaya sounded the alarm on possible Chinese poll meddling.
During the same hearing, Senate Majority Leader Francis Tolentino also alleged that China, through its embassy in Manila, allegedly paid for a “troll farm” under a contract with a private company to discredit the government and anti-China Filipino personalities.
In response, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said Beijing follows the principle of non-interference, noting that it has “no interest” in meddling with the Philippine elections.