DICT: Chinese nat'l allegedly recruiting active, retired PH soldiers underwent inquest

A Chinese national who was allegedly recruiting active and retired military through social media has already undergone inquest, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) said Friday.

According to a Super Radyo dzBB report, the 38-year-old Chinese national was identified as alias "Robin,'' an illegal alien who was allegedly involved in the posting of recruitment advertisements on Facebook.

Based on a ''Saksi'' report on Friday, the suspect was supposedly scouting for researchers that have connections to the Philippine military and defense establishments.

The suspect said that he was only ordered to post the recruitment ad and that he had no involvement in spy activities. 

The DICT said the charges to be filed against the suspect would be determined by the Department of Justice.

Authorities are also conducting further investigation into the possible involvement of Filipinos.

In April, DICT Undersecretary for Cybersecurity and Upskilling Jeffrey Ian Dy bared that there are suspected Chinese companies pretending to be American or European enterprises which have been allegedly recruiting active and former members of the Philippine military.

Dy said these firms have been offering their target Filipino recruits part-time jobs as analysts online with a salary of hundreds of dollars per hour.

The DICT first monitored the online recruitment of these companies in December 2023.—Hana Bordey and Jiselle Anne Casucian/AOL/VBL, GMA Integrated News