The ads, some of which experts say were linked to China, aimed to get unsuspecting Filipino defence specialists to give up key information
4-MIN READ4-MINAlan RoblesPublished: 11:00am, 24 Apr 2026The job ads posted on several Philippine military forums on Facebook in 2023 looked enticing.“We are hiring regional security researcher,” said a notice bearing the emblem of Janes – the well-known international aerospace and military technology publisher. It came with an eye-watering offer: “US$1,000-US$5,000.”
“Send us your CV,” the ad urged, giving Viber and WhatsApp numbers as well as an email address.
The hitch: while the ad was real, the recruiter was not.
Researchers who traced the ad’s digital fingerprints say it appears to have been part of a wider online recruitment ecosystem – one that investigators believe helped build the alleged Chinese spy network that Philippine authorities said last month they had dismantled inside the country’s defence establishment.
