Philippine authorities are expected to arrest more alleged foreign spies in the coming days following the reported apprehension of two more reported foreigners allegedly conducting espionage activities in Palawan.

In a forum in Quezon City on Wednesday, National Security Council Assistant Director Jonathan Malaya admitted that the Philippine authorities suspected there was extensive espionage operation in the country for a long time.

"It is just the tip of the iceberg and there will be more arrests in the coming days because we have seen the extensive operations that they have been doing in the Philippines. Slowly we are able to disrupt and to stop all of these activities," said Malaya, also NSC spokesperson.

"There will be more arrests and this includes what happened there in Palawan. We have ramp up our counter intel efforts because we are slowly unravelling the conspiracy in this operation that is being done by foreign actors to conduct espionage in the Philippines," he added.

Following the arrest of an alleged Chinese spy in Makati with his Filipino cohorts, two other foreign tourists were arrested in Palawan for espionage activities.

The arrested tourists reportedly took photos of Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) ships in Palawan and even installed CCTV cameras facing the regular route of the Philippine Navy and Coast Guard ships. The CCTV cameras were allegedly installed without the permission of the resort owner.

Malaya explained that more arrests are expected as the recent apprehension of alleged spies may lead to the arrest of other individuals involved in espionage activities.

"Expect more arrests in the coming days. When you have this type of individual arrested it will lead you to another individual to another individual because these are cells so to speak," he said.

"I don't want to preempt the announcement of the NBI and, of course, other relevant law enforcement agencies, but there will be more arrests. There will be more arrests. We'll probably have announcements in the next few days about other individuals," he added.

Malaya said authorities have "a solid evidence" against the alleged Chinese spy who was arrested in Makati City.

"We have a solid case against the Chinese agent or spy that we arrested. Of course, we cannot preempt the release of the information to the public. The evidence is that we have collected over time, because, I'd like to emphasize it's not a one day operation, there was extensive case build up and surveillance was done on this individual.

"Let me emphasize also that they were caught red handed, which, in legal parlance, is in flagrante delicto so he was holding the surveillance equipment and his actions were very suspicious," he added. Robina Asido/DMS