A Senate bill on Tuesday urged a pause on the push for Charter change as a more pressing threat looms — the encroachment of foreign forces into our cyber domain.

Senate Resolution No. 923, filed by Senator Risa Hontiveros, sought the chamber’s Committee on National Defense and Security to spearhead a probe into the sinister realm of foreign cyber assaults on national government agencies.

This call to action followed the Department of Information and Communications Technology’s revelation that it successfully thwarted cyber attacks targeting multiple government agencies. 

These attacks were reportedly traced back to hackers suspected of operating “within China.” 

Hontiveros lamented that while the government was “wasting time” on Charter change, China was attacking the country in various ways non-stop. 

“Instead of focusing our energies on strengthening our laws on national security, we’re wasting time on the personal interests of a few people,” she said in Filipino.

On 3 February, the DICT said hackers breached the email systems and internal websites of several government agencies, including the House of Representatives, the Office of the Cabinet Secretary, the Department of Justice, the Philippine Coast Guard, the National Coast Watch System, and the DICT itself. 

It said that several private domains were also targeted, including the personal website of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. 

DICT Undersecretary Jeffrey Ian Dy said the DICT team, with the help of the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center, was able to trace the IP address of the hackers.

Without elaborating on the specific locations of the hackers, he noted that the attackers were coming from “China Unicom.”

China Unicom, or China United Network Communications Group, is a Chinese state-owned telecommunications company.

‘Forget cha-cha’

“This is a major cyber attack. While we are all busy cleaning up the mess of the sham people’s initiative, China has taken advantage of the current instability in the country to strike at our vulnerabilities,” she said. 

She added: “This is what we should be focusing on, not that fake initiative that is dividing us Filipinos.”

In her resolution, Hontiveros cited a 2023 report by Palo Alto research firm Unit 42 on a similar cyber attack on a Southeast Asian government where the hackers attempted to install tools and malware to maintain a foothold and establish long-term surveillance.

“We don’t know, Chinese hackers might have already installed malware in our Philippine Coast Guard assets. If so, these recent cyber intrusions threaten to compromise the resupply missions to Ayungin Shoal, the security of Philippine Armed Forces personnel stationed on the BRP Sierra Madre, and the wider Philippine national interests in the West Philippine Sea,” she said. 

“That’s enough of cha-cha, China is our bigger problem. Let us stop wasting time on changing the Constitution. Let’s focus on our economic problems and the bigger threat of China,” she said.

Marcos orders countermeasures

Meanwhile, President Marcos has ordered the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the Philippine National Police to improve the nation’s cyber security measures in light of an increase in cybercrimes in the final quarter of 2023, as well as the recent report of attempts by China to hack government agencies’ computer systems.

In a Palace briefing on Tuesday, PNP Chief Benjamin Acorda said the President wants the PNP to invest in and train its personnel on the technology to address cybercrime and cyber security threats.

“As instructed by our President, we are intensifying, we are capacitating our police officers on the ground,” Acorda said.

In addition to enhancing the country’s cyber infrastructure through the training of police personnel, DILG Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr. announced plans to establish a National Cybercrime Training Institute to intensify law enforcement training nationwide.

“We will have, under the Public Safety College, a National Cybercrime Training Institute. By next week or, at most, a month, I will sign this. And this will cater primarily to our police force,” Abalos said in the same briefing.

China: Not us

The Chinese Embassy in Manila slammed the allegations that the foiled cyber attacks targeting several government agency websites and email systems by hackers in China were connected to the maritime dispute between the Philippines and China.

“Some Filipino officials and media maliciously speculated about and groundlessly accused China of engaging in cyber attacks against the Philippines, going as far as connecting them to the South China Sea dispute,” the embassy said in a statement late Monday.