DOJ sees violation of wiretapping law by Chinese Embassy

THE Department of Justice yesterday said the Chinese Embassy can be held liable for violating the Philippines’ anti-wiretapping law for recording a phone conversation between one of its officials and a Filipino military general, without the latter’s consent.

The statement was made by Senior State Counsel Fretti Ganchoon during a Senate hearing attended by, among others, Vice Adm. Alberto Carlos who resigned as commander of the AFP Western Command (Wescom) earlier this month amid the controversy about a supposed “new model” agreement with China in handling the territorial dispute in the South China Sea, particularly at Ayungin Shoal.

Carlos confirmed he had a phone conversation with a Chinese military attaché in January this year. A supposed transcript of the conversation had been given to select media outlets
Ganchoon, at the hearing of the Senate Committee on National Defense on the alleged wiretapping by the Chinese Embassy, said the DOJ had no information as to the veracity of the Chinese Embassy’s claims until Carlos broke his silence on the matter.

He said the Department of Foreign Affairs also “did not know of the truthfulness of this transcript” since the government is very careful to make comments regarding the matter due to the tension in the West Philippine Sea in the South China Sea.

“This is the first time that we are hearing the sworn testimony of Vice Admiral Carlos because we were not also sure before of the truthfulness, the authenticity of the transcript, Mr. Chair. So, we don’t know, but we have a testimony now that we can use that indeed there was a call and it was recorded,” Ganchoon said.

“So, it could be considered as a violation of the wiretapping law,” he added.

Ganchoon said concerned government agencies have been very careful with how they treat such things since they do not want to further escalate the tension with China.

“So, anything that comes from them, we treat them very carefully. So, we did not accept it right away that this transcript is authentic, that the transcript is true, that there was wiretapping. But now that we have a sworn testimony from Vice Admiral (Carlos), we thank him that there indeed was wiretapping. But with