Info leaked by alleged spies not critical

Philippine News Agency

By Priam Nepomuceno

March 10, 2026, 5:33 pm

MANILA — Information reportedly leaked by alleged members of the espionage ring “neutralized” by the National Security Council is not that vital to Philippine security, a ranking military official said on Tuesday.

Philippine Navy (PN) spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea (WPS) and Inspector General, Rear Adm. Roy Vincent Trinidad said in a media briefing at Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City that the leaked data falls under the lowest level of the military’s information classification system.

“These are classified considering the positions of the concerned personnel at the lower level of the plantilla hierarchy. Their access to information is limited to those only classified. We have (levels of) classifications for our information (and these are) classified, confidential, secret and top secret. Their access level was (limited) to classified information,” he said.

Information leaked by these alleged spies mostly consisted of “operational data for the WPS” and “plans of the PN for modernization and strategic basing.”

Trinidad declined to comment when asked about updates on tracking or identifying the handlers of these alleged spies.

“Any subsequent operation arising out of this accomplishment that are still considered active cases, we will not divulge considering that they are still operational matters,” the PN official said.

He said the espionage was uncovered through the government’s Insider Threat Program (ITP), which was launched in 2023 in the wake of the military’s pivot toward the Comprehensive Archipelagic Defense Concept, a strategic shift where the Armed Forces of the Philippines is tasked to defend all Philippine territories, including its 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone.

“(The implementation of this) has uncovered and stopped espionage activities with the exposure of four of the persons who were involved. Three of them have been approached and they cooperated. They are now under the control of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. The fourth one, a PN officer refused the offer given to him,” Trinidad said.

“I would like to highlight number one, the ITP, the Insider Threat Program, is working as manifested by these accomplishments,” he added.

Likewise, the PN official said that the program is continually being evaluated and enhanced. (PNA)