Gov’t sites hacked over ‘pork’ scam

MANILA, Philippines - Government websites were hacked hours before the start of the “Million People March” in Rizal Park yesterday, a group of hackers claimed.

In a Facebook post early yesterday, “hacktivist” group Anonymous Philippines said more than 30 websites – including those of the Optical Media Board (OMB), Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF) and the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) – were defaced by hackers.

The websites of the OMB, KWF, and the NHCP, as well as the websites of various local government units, remained inaccessible as of noontime yesterday.

Also inaccessible were the sites of the Philippine National Police Provident Fund and the Philippine Economic Zone Authority.

On the other hand, the websites of the National Telecommunications Commission and Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which were on the list of alleged hacked sites, were already accessible at noon.

“We appreciate the fact that you have now responded to the public clamor to abolish the PDAF,” said Anonymous Philippines in the Facebook post, referring to the Priority Development Assistance Fund or pork barrel.

“However, the alternative package of still allowing the congressmen and senators to identify sponsored projects to be funded, albeit as line items in the annual budget, continues to leave money (in the) grasp of conniving and corrupt public officials,” the group said, dismissing the alternative system proposed by President Aquino.

Anonymous Philippines said the move “merely shifted the timeframe (within which) these projects are identified and approved” and that pork barrel still remains.

Meanwhile, as soon as the anti-’pork’ rally was over yesterday, an online petition was launched urging the Aquino administration to totally junk the PDAF.

Spearheaded by Million People March organizer Peachy Bretaña, the online petition aims to gather one million signatures.

“The Philippine government must scrap pork, account for all spent pork and probe and punish abusers of pork,” the petition read.

Trending post

During the protest action yesterday, the hashtag #MillionPeopleMarch topped the Twitter trending posts in the Philippines.

Earlier, Anonymous Incorporated - a separate group supporting the abolition of pork barrel - released the alleged contact information of fugitive businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles and her relatives.

“We are now going to give the public the email addresses, phone numbers and house addresses of some members of the Napoles family,” read the post released last week.

“We only know few things, but the things we wrote here were all vital and served as a key to unlock the mystery of how graft and corruption works at the very core of our government that no one dared to explain in a public forum,” it added.

Napoles is the alleged mastermind of the P10-billion pork barrel scam. A Makati City Regional Trial Court earlier ordered her arrest for the serious illegal detention case filed by whistle-blower Benhur Luy. Also ordered arrested was her brother Reynald Lim. -With Jaime Laude