‘He is not a spy,’ insists Filipino wife of detained Chinese national
MANILA, Philippines — The wife of a suspected “sleeper agent,” who was arrested for his alleged involvement in espionage activities, has denied that her husband is a “Chinese spy.”
Last January 20, National Bureau of Investigation Director Jaime Santiago identified the arrested Chinese national as Yuanqing Deng, a technical software engineer connected with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
In a press conference on Monday, his wife, Noemi Deng, turned emotional as she defended her husband from the allegations.
READ: West Philippine Sea: Navy flags espionage, says foreign power mapping PH
“Isa lang masasabi ko hindi po spy si Qing matagal na po siya naninirahan dito sa Pilipinas mahigit 10 yrs na po siya dito may anak kami 8 years old (What I can say is that Qing is not a spy and has been living here in the Philippines for 10 years. We have an 8-year-old child),” Noemi said.
“Sana po bigyan hustisya asawa ko dahil hinahanap na po siya ng anak niya ilang araw na po di nakakausap parati na lang nag tatanong yung bata kung nasaan yung daddy niya wala ako maisagot na tama (I hope that justice will be given to my husband because our child is already looking for him for days now. Our child kept on asking the whereabouts of his father but I could not tell him anything),” she also said.
Based on previous reports, Santiago said Deng studied at the PLA-controlled University of Science and Technology in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China, and specializes in control engineering and automation systems.
Following his arrest, Philippine Navy spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea Rear Adm. Roy Vincent Trinidad said that “there seems to be a deliberate and calculated move to map out the Philippines by a foreign power.”
“So if we look at the entire expanse of the country covering the different incidents and national power and start connecting the dots, there seems now to be a deliberate and calculated move to map out the country by a foreign power,” the Navy official said last week.
“That is what your armed forces are monitoring. We are facing these, and we are taking appropriate action,” he added.
Trinidad also mentioned activities involving foreign nationals last year. He did not mention names, but Alice Guo, a Chinese national whose real name was revealed to be Guo Hua Ping, served as Bamban, Tarlac mayor, from June 2022 to August 2024.
The former mayor was in hot water earlier last year due to allegations linking her to a Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators hub in Bamban. She is also facing complaints for graft, qualified human trafficking, money laundering, and tax evasion. She is currently detained in Pasig City Jail.
Meanwhile, the National Bureau of Investigation uncovered “close to 200 falsified birth certificates” issued by the Local Civil Registry of Santa Cruz, Davao del Sur, to Chinese nationals from 2018 to 2019 in July last year.
