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Jean Mangaluz - Philstar.com
May 5, 2025 | 7:23pm
Senate Majority Leader Francis Tolentino leads the hearing of the on Philippine Maritime and Admiralty Zones on May 5, 2025.
Senate PRIB
MANILA, Philippines — Senate Majority Leader Francis Tolentino said active directors and incorporators of Makati-based InfinitUs Marketing Solutions could face treason charges for allegedly working with China to operate troll farms in the Philippines.
On Monday, May 5, Tolentino presented what he described as a contract between InfinitUs and the Chinese Embassy, under which the firm was purportedly hired to deploy keyboard warriors to peddle disinformation favorable to Beijing and criticize Philippine figures.
The senator also displayed a check from the Chinese Embassy to InfinitUs for P900,000.
InfinitUs founder Paul Li faced Tolentino at a Senate inquiry where he denied the existence of such a contract but affirmed the authenticity of the check.
Li said the payment was for organizing the Awards for Promoting Philippines-China Understanding in June 2023, an event attended by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Li maintained that a detail on a sales order for the purchase of COVID-19 equipment for the event was requested by the Office of the President, despite questions from Tolentino about the necessity of such items when the pandemic was already over.
Why treason? Tolentino said it was because the firm is "collaborating with a foreign government to put down our system. And it’s ongoing. Even though it’s going on in a digital space, it undermines the sovereignty of our country, our institutions, as well as society itself. It is the highest form of betrayal to one’s flag.”
In addition to possible treason charges, Tolentino said the Securities and Exchange Commission could move to revoke InfinitUs’ articles of incorporation.
While Li is a Chinese national, and not a Filipino, Tolentino argued that his role as an officer of a Philippine corporation would make him liable for espionage.
Tolentino indicated that these charges may be included in the forthcoming committee report.
“He’s been more than an accomplice so he’s functioning as a part of a Filipino corporation here so espionage, probably, will be a higher degree. But we have to amend the laws,” Tolentino said.
