CEBU, Philippines - A congressional candidate's internet blog was hacked and suspected his political opponents to be behind this.
Team Rama south district congressional aspirant lawyer Aristotle Batuhan confirmed a hacking incident on his blog "totolbatuhan.com" shortly after posting an entry about Councilor Rodrigo "Bebot" Abellanosa, who also aspires for the same congressional position.
"Yes, we discovered about the hacking of my blog last Thursday (March 21) which coincided with our latest posting of an update on the administrative case vs Abellanosa. We posted, among others, info that a lawyer for respondent filed a manifestation and motion for time seeking a 15-day extension for them to file the answer, clearly an effort to further delay and stall the process," Batuhan told The FREEMAN.
Despite not having evidence directly pointing to opposing Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK) camp, Batuhan thought this was possible considering the circumstances.
"While I don't have any evidence to say that the hacking was politically motivated, it seems to fit the pattern of malicious acts from the other camp of defacing and tearing down our campaign materials in certain barangays. This may be their version of political bullying in cyberspace," he continued.
BOPK president, Cebu City South District Congressman Tomas Osmeña advised Batuhan to "come up with a more creative" publicity stunt saying he did not know where these accusations come from.
"Enough of this foolishness. Batuhan needs all the media attention that he can get because he is losing behind our candidate," Osmeña told The FREEMAN.
Batuhan further claimed that their campaign materials, particularly those posted in barangay Tisa, Cogon, Poblacion Pardo, Guadalupe and Kinasang-an, were removed.
Osmeña said this is entirely the opposite of what is happening.
"They are the ones tearing down our campaign materials in barangay Tejero, Tinago, Sawang Calero, Lahug. We have filed cases against them. We have witnesses who have issued affidavits. Even Racquel Arce who works for the city hall knows about this," the mayoralty candidate added, saying Mary Ann delos Santos is "notorious for that act."
"She removes not only my campaign materials but also that of Jun Magsaysay in a well project. She put her name on the marker," Osmeña continued.
Because Team Rama is removing his campaign materials, he is losing in the survey of most posters all over the city, he said in jest.
Asked if Batuhan will press charges against the suspected hacking culprit should their technical team find out who was behind this, the lawyer said, "we will see where the evidence will lead us."
"For now, I am more interested in implementing added security measures to prevent a similar incident. We will not be deterred from articulating our advocacies and exposing graft and corruption at all levels of government," Batuhan explained.
But Osmeña quickly dismissed the hacking allegations saying he does not even know how to hack computers.
"Nobody reads his blog, anyway. How can he accuse us of hacking it?" he added.
Batuhan earlier filed an administrative case against opponent Abella-nosa for grave misconduct and violation of Republic Act No. 6713 being a president of a private college while serving as city councilor with "highly disadvantageous scholarship-related contracts." — (FREEMAN)