Aquino website defaced over Sabah

MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – They’re back with vengeance. 

Hackers claiming to be part of “Anonymous Philippines” defaced President Benigno Aquino III’s website at around 1:30 am on Thursday, March 14, criticizing the President’s handling of the Sabah conflict.

As of posting time, the latest story on the Office of the President’s site bore a message from the hackers. “If you can’t act on the issue as the Philippine President, at least do something as a fellow Filipino. We are watching,” they said in the post. 

The complete message follows:

“Greetings, President Aquino! We have watched how you signed into law a bill that endangers and tramples upon the netizens’ freedom of speech and expression. Now, we are silent witnesses as to how you are mishandling the Sabah issue. We did not engage the Malaysian hackers who invaded our cyberspace since we expected you to appropriately and judiciously act on the same, but you failed us. You did nothing while our fellow brothers are being butchered by the Malaysian forces, and while our women and children become subject of human rights abuses. If you can’t act on the issue as the Philippine President, at least do something as a fellow Filipino. We are watching.”

The group also left links to their social media accounts on the post.

Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Herminio Coloma, Jr., sent out a statement, announcing the eventual return of the President’s website:

“We expect to resume public display of the President’s website in a few hours after needed protection measures have been put in place,” notes the announcement. “At around 1:30 a.m. today, we detected a breach when an errant sentence critical of the government on the Sabah issue was found to have been inserted in one of the news items within the website. No further intrusions were made as the internal security protocols were activated.” – with reports from Bea Cupin/Rappler.com