Manila: The Philippine government called for moderation as Filipino and Chinese hackers elevated the Philippine-China standoff at the Scarborough Shoal to cyberspace,
"We call on both Filipino and Chinese netizens to be more responsible and encourage dialogue rather than discord," foreign affairs department spokesman Raul Hernandez told GMA News.
"We denounce such cyber attacks regardless from which side they are coming from. They are counter-productive and will only add to the tensions," said Hernandez.
Meanwhile, Abigail Valte, spokesperson of President Benigno Aquino, said: "When a website of a government agency is defaced, we always send out a communication to all other agencies to make sure that their sites are secure."
Collaborative efforts
The University of the Philippines (UP) announced the restoration of its website on Saturday, after it was defaced allegedly by pro-China hackers.
"The UP System website [is] back online, thanks to collaborative efforts between [the] UP System Information Office (SIO) and the UP Computer Centre.
"We strongly denounce the attempt to deprive the UP community of vital information," UP assistant vice-president for public affairs Danilo Arao said.
Filipino hackers defaced Chinese websites on Saturday and posted messages that say: "Scarborough Shoal is ours," and "Spratly Islands is ours."
A Facebook account called Anonymous Occupy Philippines, said, "Even if it's just in the cyberworld, we were able to fight the bullying of China."
