Website of red-tagged Ibon Foundation cyber-attacked, says exec

MANILA, Philippines — Red-tagged think-tank Ibon Foundation has reported that cyber-attackers took down its website on Maundy Thursday.

Ibon Foundation Executive Director Sonny Africa in a tweet said: “No, IBON’s website isn’t on vacation… and apparently neither are cyber-attackers!  Working on resurrection.”

No, IBON's website isn't on vacation…

… and apparently neither are cyber-attackers!

Working on resurrection :) pic.twitter.com/yksAA3PDgP

— Sonny Africa (@sonnyafrica) April 18, 2019

A visit to Ibon Foundation’s website would show a notification saying, “it appears you have no permission to access this page.  403 error.  Forbidden”.   A 403 error is a hypertext transfer protocol code, which tells internet users that they are trying to access a website deemed forbidden.

Ibon Foundation is one of the organizations being accused by the government of having links to the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), its armed wing New People’s Army (NPA), and its political wing National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).

In an opinion piece written by Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) deputy chief of staff for civil military operations Brig. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr., the military claims to have sufficient evidence to prove Ibon Foundation’s ties with the CPP-NPA-NDFP.

READ: AFP Deputy Chief of Staff for Civil Military Operations reacts to Bayan Muna Party-list Rep. Zarate

Rep. Carlos Zarate of Bayan Muna, one of the party-list groups that also supposedly has links with CPP, earlier hit Parlade for making such accusations just to earn the praise of the administration and eventually be assigned as AFP chief.

READ: Parlade targeting Makabayan bloc to win AFP top post— Zarate