Sister of Filipino detained in China asks gov’t for help

The sister of one of the Filipinos being held by China for alleged espionage has appealed to the government to bring her sibling and two others, who were originally scholars in Hainan University and now employed as Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), back home to the Philippines.

According to the sister who declined to be named, she and her family want to fly to China to visit her sibling but they do not know where the Filipinos are being detained. They are asking for assistance from the Philippine government.

“Kami po ay nananawagan po sa gobyerno po ng Pilipinas, sa Presidente po, na sana po matulungan po sila na makabalik na po sana sila dito sa Pilipinas,” she said in a report on GMA’s “24 Oras Weekend” on Sunday.

(We are appealing to the government of the Philippines, the President, that they be helped in coming back to the Philippines.)

Chinese state media Global Times last week reported that three Filipinos were arrested for suspected espionage, with the report saying that investigation found that “Philippine intelligence agencies have long been focused on gathering information about China’s military deployments.”

The sister of one of the detainees, however, said that her sibling was well aware of Chinese laws. Her last contact with her sibling was in November 2024, who was then heading to Wenchang in China for a job interview.

“Unang una, ‘yung kapatid po namin, maalam naman po siya sa mga batas sa China. Siya nga rin po nagsasabi sa amin na ganito bawal doon, ganito, ganiyan (First of all, my sibling is knowledgeable on the laws in China. My sibling was telling us what are prohibited there),” she said.

“Magpakatatag ka, magtiwala ka sa Panginoon na magiging maayos ang lahat at kami, maraming kaming nagmamahal sa’yo (Be strong, have faith in God that all will be resolved. There are a lot of us who love you),” she added.

The three Filipinos were found to have been originally part of the first and second batches of scholars sent to Hainan University for free schooling as part of partnership with the Palawan local government.

“Itong tatlong (These three) former scholars are from first and second batch so they already finished their studies by 2021, so they went back here in Palawan, but applied for a job back in China. They went back to China as migrant workers and or OFWs,” Palawan local government unit provincial information officer Atty. Christian Jay Cojamco said.

There are currently 19 scholars in Hainan University, with three expressing their intent to come back home to the Philippines following the latest development.

“There’s no more intention of renewing the MOA (memorandum of agreement) with Hainan University  to send scholars (to) China,” Cojamco said.

For its part, the National Security Council (NSC) raised questions over the espionage charges, as it said there was no evidence and this can be seen as retaliation after suspected Chinese spies were arrested in the Philippines. It also said the Filipinos are ordinary citizens with no military training, and had no access to military bases. —Jon Viktor Cabuenas/RF, GMA Integrated News