The website of the Senate of the Philippines experienced a "spike" in access requests on Saturday afternoon – the same day the website of the House of Representatives was hacked, Senate Secretary Renato Bantug Jr. said Tuesday.

"Last Saturday, shortly before noon or around noon, we experienced a spike – technically it's called requests in accessing the website. It's a lot more than the usual," Bantug told reporters in a chance interview.

He noted that the requests that originated from various countries such as Germany, the United States, and Vietnam were rejected by the Senate's "anti-hacking software."

"Fortunately for us, it was all mitigated. None of the requests which the application considered malicious have succeeded," he said.

Its counterpart's website, the House of Representatives was breached and defaced by hackers who identified themselves as 3MUSKETEERZ on Sunday.

As of writing, the website is still inaccessible to the public due to "suspicious and unusual activities.

'No confidential data'

Bantug clarified that there is no confidential data stored on the Senate's website.

"What we have online at the Senate website are essentially public documents — records of the proceedings, committee hearings, etc.," he said.

"The only possible private data that they can mine would be our email server but none of the senators as of the present moment use our email servers," he added.

He continued: "So, it would not be compromised at all – at this stage because we're not using the Senate email server."

Electronic Data Processing and Management Information System Bureau Director III Mariano Antonio Sulit echoed the same observation.

"It would just be bragging rights. There is no confidential data there. It's all public documents," said Sulit when asked about what information hackers may get on the website.

He also clarified that those behind the hacking attempts were not really in Germany and other countries that were mentioned.

"They were bots actually," he said.

The lower chamber's website was the latest victim of the cyber-attacks that targeted government offices and agencies.

The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation announced on 22 September the temporary shutdown of its website, as well as its membership portal to contain an "information security incident."

Weeks later, the Department of Information and Communication Technology reported that the Philippine Statistics Authority which implements the rollout of the National ID also suffered from data breach.