Defense Secretary Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro Jr. on Monday stressed the need to amend the country’s espionage law to make it stiffer and allow the government to enforce punishments for the act during “times of peace.”
Teodoro, in an ambush interview, lamented that the espionage law was only applicable during “times of war.”
“The important thing now is to punish espionage during peacetime because the espionage law in the Philippines is only effective during times of war,” Teodoro said, when asked to comment on reports that dismissed Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo was a Chinese spy.
Meanwhile, Teodoro said the authorities were already investigating the allegations against Guo and her supposed cohorts.
“What is clear is that she is not a Filipino. Secondly, she falsified documents to pretend that she is a Filipino, and, thirdly, she was an active co-conspirator in a massive illegal criminal enterprise wherein all these illegal activities started,” he said.
Teodoro said the government must act accordingly and probe deeper if other Chinese nationals are also engaged in espionage that undermines national security.
“Being a Chinese national and engaged in such activity damages this country, whether or not it is espionage, right? And that’s what we have to look into and hopefully prosecute speedily,” he added.
Guo’s identity was further questioned after a video of an Al Jazeera interview of Chinese tycoon and confessed spy She Zhijiang was played at last week’s House Quad Committee hearing. In the video, She said that the dismissed mayor was a spy.
The lawmakers repeatedly asked Guo about the veracity of the information in the video.
Guo insisted she was a Filipino citizen and not a Chinese spy.
“I am not a spy. I love the Philippines,” she told the lawmakers.
To Teodoro, Guo’s case serves as a call to action to review the existing espionage law.
“So call to action din, our legislators already know that they should immediately amend the espionage law so that the government can impose punishments and act correctly to suppress it,” he said.
Guo, who is currently detained at the Pasig City jail, is facing criminal charges over her alleged ties to illegal POGO operations. She is facing charges of graft, qualified human trafficking, money laundering, and tax evasion.