The National Security Council (NSC) on Saturday expressed alarm over the arrest of three Filipino nationals by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on charges of espionage.

In a statement, NSC spokesperson and director general Jonathan Malaya said the arrested Filipinos were former scholars at Hainan Normal University who were granted scholarships under the sisterhood agreement between the provinces of Hainan in China and Palawan in the Philippines.

“They are ordinary Filipino citizens with no military training who merely went to China to study at the invitation of the Chinese government. They are law-abiding citizens with no criminal records and were vetted and screened by the Chinese government prior to their arrival there,” Malaya said.

Chinese media earlier reported that PRC authorities had arrested three Filipinos from which “conclusive evidence of their involvement in espionage” was “obtained.”

“Investigators said the three received monthly payments from the Philippine intelligence agency, with additional bonuses for high-value intelligence,” it said.

According to the report, the security officials claimed that since 2021, “the Philippine intelligence agency has recruited and trained Filipino nationals living in China to gather information on the country’s military deployments.”

It said the “three suspects have confessed and expressed remorse.”

Meanwhile, Malaya said the video released by Chinese media appeared to have been edited and the supposed “confessions” of the detained Filipinos only “raised more questions than answers.”