Manila – On Mindanao island in Misiamis Occidental, Jun Santos, a local IT head has been noting a larger than normal number of hits to servers on his system. A journalist based in Alabang village in the southern part of the capitol region cannot log onto the servers of his companies FTP site.
In Quezon City a mere city block from the Presidents home, and, in a district where two of the nations largest broadcasters have their main studios – slower than normal connetction times since monday have made 504 errors common.
In Baguio City, a region of outsourced call centers and back office operations the Philippines newest core growth industry at least five IP based call centers have been reporting contstant DNS errors and have switched to backup systems via satitilite.
While government has remianed silent. A large percentage of DNS hits may be linked to the current stand-off with China and recent online skirmishes between China and the Philippines online between social network, blogs, and, online news services.
INTERNET OFF SWITCH: DNS attack traced to massive traffic demand
"The first stage of the battle has begun". Warns posts on blogs that have taken up topic of the current dispute between China and the Philippines.
Overnight increased traffic and DNS errors have been noted accross the country. As wave after wave of server attacks are ongoing. "It is China
CHINA – PHILIPPINE FUED OVER REEF SHIFTS ONLINE
The current standoff began April 9th, when the Philippines dispatched a former US coast guard cutter, and its sole modern naval frigate BRP Gregorio del Pilar to investigate an earlier sighting of several Chinese fishing boats in the lagoon at Scarborough Shoal.
A maritime enforcement naval boarding party from the frigate discovered thatseveral of the fishing vessels contained large amounts of giant clams, coral, and live sharks that appeared to have been illegally harvested from waters clearly lying within the Philippines’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
The fishermen are now precipitating the standoff as reports say as many as 14 large chinese fishing vessels have entered the shoal in a direct challenge to Manila to arrest or detain them.
China and the Philippines who now are in a drawn out diplomatic protests over this incident. In an effort to diffuse tensions, the Philippines has replaced the Naval vessels with Coast Guard cutters led by the BRP Edsa and BRP Pampamga.
China, meanwhile, reinforced its presence by dispatching an armed Fishery Law Enforcement Command (FLEC) ship to relieve one of the CMS vessels. Now Chinese and Philippine fishing boats are fishing calmly.
Since April 20, China further reinforced its presence at Scarborough Shoal with FLEC ship, Yuzheng 310, which is armed with heavy autocannon and reportedly carries Anti-Aircraft missles.