The Armed Forces of the Philippines is now investigating the veracity of the information that the Chinese government allegedly recruited military consultants to spy on the situation in the West Philippine Sea.

In an interview with reporters on Monday, Department of National Defense spokesperson Arsenio Andolong said they have already tasked the AFP to investigate the matter.

“The DND has directed the AFP to investigate it,” Andolong said.

“We are still checking this. We are still in the process of checking this,” AFP chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. told reporters in a press conference on Monday.

Meanwhile, Andolong suggested that looking into the matter will “require more inter-agency investigation.”

“Because in cyber, it's very difficult to determine the footprint they want to hide themselves,” he added.

“You know, in cyberspace, you're all familiar with that—any actor can do what he wants, provided he behaves, unfortunately, there are actors who have ulterior motives when they conduct action in cyberspace.”

Andolong said the DND and the AFP are taking the cyber security threats seriously, including the alleged spying on the country’s exclusive economic zone in the WPS.

“We are not alarmed, per se, it depends on what you mean by alarmed. But we are taking this incident seriously. We want to be careful,” he added.