The hacktivist group, Anonymous Philippines, has hacked the official website of President Aquino to protest his alleged failure to resolve the crisis in Sabah.

The intrusion on the Office of the President's website, www.president.gov.ph, occurred at around 1:30 am Thursday, forcing the Palace web administrator to temporarily close down the site.

Secretary Herminio Coloma of the Presidential Communications Operations Office said they expect to resume public display of the President's website in a few hours after needed protection measures have been put in place.

"At around 1:30 a.m. today, we detected a breach when an errant sentence critical of the government on the Sabah issue was found to have been inserted in one of the news items within the website. No further intrusions were made as the internal security protocols were activated," Coloma said.

In a message posted on the website, the hackers criticized the President's supposed inaction to prevent the the deaths of several Filipinos in Sabah as well as the rights abuses against women and children in the disputed territory. 

"Greetings, President Aquino! We have watched how you signed into law a bill that endangers and tramples upon the netizens’ freedom of speech and expression. Now, we are silent witnesses as to how you are mishandling the Sabah issue," the group's statement read.

"We did not engage the Malaysian hackers who invaded our cyberspace since we expected you to appropriately and judiciously act on the same, but you failed us. You did nothing while our fellow brothers are being butchered by the Malaysian forces, and while our women and children become subject of human rights abuses," it added.

The hackers ended its message with a warning to the President to take action to end the armed conflict in Sabah. "If you can’t act on the issue as the Philippine President, at least do something as a fellow Filipino. We are watching," the group said. 

As off press time, the website www.president.gov.ph is still down.