MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines denied on Monday, May 26, that it spied on Qatar even as a Qatari court sentenced a Filipino to death for allegedly passing on state secrets to the Philippine government.

“We categorically deny that we are engaged in espionage,” Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) spokesman Charles Jose said.

“Our embassy officials have also raised this issue in several high-level meetings with Qatari officials,” Jose added.

He also said the Philippine embassy in Doha “has been tireless in its efforts” to help the Filipinos who face espionage and economic sabotage charges in Qatar.

Embassy personnel have visited them in jail, and have been helping their families visit them as well.

The DFA issued this statement after it confirmed that a Filipino is on the Qatari death row “for espionage and economic sabotage.” Two other Filipinos will suffer life imprisonment “for the same offense,” Jose said.

Fall guy?

In an interview with Doha News in Qatar, a source “close to their trial” said the 3 Filipinos “have been convicted of espionage for passing along military and economic secrets to their home government.”

The Filipino sentenced to death is “reported to be a lieutenant in the Philippine state security force working as a budgeting and contracting supervisor at large state-owned Qatari company,” Doha News said.

It described the two others as “technicians working with the Qatar Air Force.”

The driver of one of the convicted Filipinos, in an interview with GMA News, denied that his boss spied on Qatar. The driver said “their Qatari boss was implicated in an anomaly involving money and might have used the convicted Filipino as a fall guy,” according to the report.

He said the espionage charge was likely meant “to cover up for other Qatari nationals involved in the alleged anomaly in the company,” the GMA News report said. – Rappler.com