P135-M spy gadgets trained on opponents

From the opposition newspaper the Daily Tribune (Apr 6): P135-M spy gadgets trained on opponents

INTELLIGENCE NETWORK CENTRALIZED UNDER DND 

Part of the Aquino administration’s plan to create a vast integrated government intelligence network was the purchase of P135 million worth of high-end surveillance equipment comparable to those being used by the United States government but which will primarily be used to spy on critics of President Aquino, including the political opposition.

A source said the German-made technology gadgets unlike in the US which uses the gadgets to spy on potential terror threats, these will be used against targets of the Aquino administration who are key opposition leaders and their families.

A purchase request dated Oct. 26, 2011 for “Radio Frequency Test Equipment” had a Special Allotment Release Order (SARO) Number D-11-024613 as approved by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), the source said.

The purchase did not undergo open bidding but was undertaken through a negotiated contract awarded to Germany-based electronic surveillance company Rohde & Schwarz with the items codenamed “Spectrum.”

Rohde and Schwarz is also a major supplier of surveillance equipment of the US government and has an office in Makati.

Rohde and Schwarz’s “Spectrum” portfolio is composed of portable analyzers and handheld monitoring receivers for the general purpose of signal investigation and scalar networking.

The Department of National Defense (DND) has a plan to create a new intelligence agency under it that will integrate the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP).

ISAFP head Brig. Gen. Eduardo Año confirmed the forming of the new spy network based on a “planning guidance” issued by Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin. The aim of the creation of the new body would be a bigger intelligence organization, he said.

“The intelligence unit of the AFP will be part now of the whole defense department,” he said, noting that the new spy agency will be like that of the US Defense Intelligence Agency.

Año said the spy network will be up by 2015.

“These equipment are so high-end that even the most modern scramblers will not work against the units,” a source privy said of the state-of-the-art spy gadgets.

The technology can collect massive amounts of information from e-mails, social media posts, text messages and cellphones and cannot be deflected by existing counter-surveillance technology, the source said.

According to the source, unlike the US government, particularly the National Security Agency, that uses the same technology to spy on terrorist threats, the “confidential emergency purchase” of the “Spectrum” portfolio is intended for monitoring and eavesdropping missions to collect information and routinely spy on select opposition personalities and their family members, including minor children.

The source said the equipment are now being setup at the ISAFP Headquarters at Camp Aguinaldo and will be in full operation by June this year.

A team has already been formed to handle the monitoring operations with a senior civilian official overseeing it.

The source added with the government’s upgraded surveillance platform, one can only imagine what edge the snooping operations could give the Aquino Administration, especially with the 2016 presidential elections looming in the horizon.

“The breathtaking scope of spying is now being extended to political purposes other than national security,” the source said.

The source also revealed that the directive to spy on opposition leaders has demoralized military intelligence operatives.

“They thought this type of surveillance on the opposition would not happen anymore because of President Aquino. But people close to him, if not himself, wanted a repeat of what GMA (former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo) did,” the source said.

In the 2004 elections, the military has become a silent accomplice of the Arroyo Administration’s surveillance program on its political opponents.

The “Hello, Garci” tapes shook the Arroyo administration and battered the entire armed forces, exposing the extent of the Malacanang’s hand in rigging the results of the 2004 Presidential elections.

In January 2014, the Department of National Defense (DND) announced its plans to create a new, expanded and cutting-edge national “spy” agency that will include the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP).

The proposal is similar to the US Defense Intelligence Agency’s (DIA) role which encompasses the gathering and analysis of security-related foreign, domestic, political, economic, industrial, geographic, military and civilian intelligence data.

Heads of the intelligence service groups like NICA and ISAFP are personally handpicked by the President.

The source said the purchase of the snooping equipment was considered by the Aquino administration since June 2011 when the planning and negotiations phase started.

The DBM processed the special allotment release order (SARO) with validity until Dec. 31, 2012 in October 2011.

On Dec. 7, 2012, the submission of the initial bids by German supplier Rohde & Schwarz was made and in January 10, 2013, a request for revalidation of SARO was forwarded to the DBM.

A post qualification meeting with the suppliers were held in Munich, Germany on February 11, 2013 and on February 25, a post qualification report was presented.

In March 2013, the SARO (Fund Code 101) was revalidated prior to the issuance of a notice of agreement (NOA) in favor of Rohde and Schwarz.

The equipment was delivered in November last year and its full operations is planned anytime between June and August, the source said.

http://www.tribune.net.ph/headlines/p135-m-spy-gadgets-trained-on-opponents