14 DAY TRIAL // A number of 6 Philippines government websites have been defaced by Anonymous hackers just before the Supreme Court's hearing on the controversial Anti-Cybercrime Act of 2012, GMA News informs.
The hacks appear to be part of the campaign called Occupy Philippines.
The affected sites are the ones of the Police Regional Office 8, the National Food Authority, the National Maritime Polytechnic, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, the Cebu Port Authority, and the official website of Jose Panganiban.
“For many years, we have spent speaking what we truly feel; what we truly felt. NO HOLDS BARRED is the past game. We speak, the government hears. They speak, we are all ears,” the hackers wrote on the defaced websites.
They’ve highlighted the fact that according to the 1987 Philippine Constitution, no laws that diminish the freedom of speech, of expression or of the press will be passed.
“What happened to the law? Are all laws meant to be broken? Are they made to fool people, deprive them of their rights in exchange of what we believe as ‘Heavens for Politicians’?” the hacktivists added.
“Some say we are against the law because it would hinder our ‘criminal activities’, but WE do not oppose the said law in any way, if it’s for the greater good. We are the voice of the weak, the sense of the numb, we are bonded by cause and purpose.”
Some of the sites have been restored, but one of them has been taken down completely, and one still displays the hacktivists’ protest message.
This is not the first time when hackers attack Philippines government sites in protest against the Anti-Cybercrime Act of 2012. Before the country’s Supreme Court suspended it, several high-profile websites had been defaced.