Attacks on Dona Victorina continue! (UPDATED)

Being famous has its downside and the bloggers of Dona Victorina may be getting acquainted with the dark side of fame.

In its latest post, the Victorina Council writes that is continually being attacked and the objective of the attack may be to screw up the blogsite so that it doesn't appear on the internet anymore.

"the Victorina Council has reason to believe that the Magdalo group and/or their supporters have been trying to sabotage our blog using underhanded technology. Victorina strongly denounces this cowardly act and vehemently denies any insinuation that these are provoked attacks."

Countermeasures are now being deployed to stop these attacks but what is worrisome is the possibility that the attacks may migrate from cyberspace to real life.

Will the members of the Victorina Council be subjected to threats of bodily harm? I hope not.

Anyway, the attacks haven't been limited to Victorina.

Even Pinoy Buzz was subjected to a DOS or Ping Bomb attack, making it difficult for me to log on the internet.

Then there were three instances when my Motigo vist counter logged over a thousand page views from a single IP address. My google analytics also registered the same event.

You see, one way to get keep people from viewing a website is to deploy a program that repeatedly downloads or accesses the webpage at a very fast rate. What happens is that the server which hosts the website becomes so flooded with download or access requests that it exceeds its bandwidth allocation and when this happens, the website returns a 404 message when accessed by other users.

I don't know if this was the actual technique deployed on Pinoy Buzz, but it sure did look like it.

Oddly, these "page view" spikes occurred after I posted the entry "Querubin's minions hack Dona Victorina blog" on June 22. My counters registered a spike on June 30 (1,503) and July 6 (1,890), there were at least three IP addresses that was recorded as doing most of the pageviews and two were located in Singapore while the third was located in Dubai.

Another "page view" more recently on July 20 with 1,412 pageviews after I posted the entries "Querubin writes to Pinoy Buzz" on July 10 and "Colonel Querubin's crusade against Dona Victorina" on July 13.

I have to admit that much of what I am saying is circumstantial and I have some doubt that ranking as well as bemedalled soldiers will actually waste their time trying to destroy my blog.

The thing is, Pinoy Buzz is a free-blog and I haven't gotten around to actually buying a domain name or leasing server space. If they do manage to destroy it, I have six other blogs that I can use to get back at them.

Then again, it would really be a bad thing if Querubin was really behind the attacks on Victorina and Pinoy Buzz. One wonders how he'd handle a Senate interpellation where his views are thoroughly taken apart and proven to be of marginal value. I wonder if we'll actually see our senate erupt in a brawl such as what happened in Taiwan or South Korea.

Paano na lang kung pikunin siya ni Pimentel or ni Joker Arroyo, baka makipag-suntukan pa sa mga matanda. Nakakahiya naman!

Of course, I always entertain the idea that I can be wrong about Querubin.

"Querubin" writes to Pinoy Buzz

On June 22, I put up a blog entry alleging that Querubin's cyber minions had hacked the Dona Victorina blog and reposted the entry which was said to have caused the attack on the blog.

When I was told that the Dona Victorina blog was hacked, I took it at face value because I trust the people who run the blog and have no reason to doubt their word. Moreover, I don't know Colonel Ariel Querubin from Adam and I must confess, I don't trust soldiers who in my view attempted to overthrow a duly elected President.

I have an extreme dislike for President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's rule but what I hate more than her is the possibility of a group of military officials who put it into their heads that doing something wrong can ever lead to something right. Macapagal Arroyo was elected (to use the term loosely here) through a democratic process and using force or the threat of force to support an extra-constitutional means of ousting her from power is the wrong way to go.

Brigader General Danny Lim and Colonel Ariel Querubin along with Senator Antonio Trillanes were all involved in attempts to take Gloria Macapagal Arroyo out of power. Perhaps they fully believed that this was the only way to rid the country of the many ills it suffers and that with Gloria out of power, the country would then be saved.

I wish I was still naive.

Here's the thing I cannot get over.

Senator Antonio Trillanes led his men to take over Oakwood as an act of defiance against what they said was the corrupt regime of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Trillanes was apprehended and brought to trial. Thereafter, he campaigned for a seat in the Senate and won in 2007. Some time after that, he walked away from a hearing and went to the Manila Peninsula.

As a soldier, he swore to defend the constitution. He broke his oath during the Oakwood Mutiny. Then as a senator, he swore an oath to uphold the constitution. He broke his oath again with the Manila Peninsula Siege.

Of course, Trillanes was not the first military man to do this. Before him was General Fidel V. Ramos and then Senator Gringgo Honasan.

How many of our military officials have messianic tendencies, I wonder? And can they really save the country from the cess pool that it is in?

Going back to General Lim and Colonel Querubin, they are now seeking election as senators and I really wonder if they will be truly worthy of that position. Their military track records are great, but their track records as citizens of a democratic country leaves much to be desired.

I wonder how well they can participate in debates, baka kapag nasupalpal ang mga privilege speech nila eh biglang mag-amoy pulbura. Huwag naman ganun.

Anyway, just today I got a message on Facebook from someone who says he is Colonel Ariel Querubin and it is apparently an attempt to contradict a number of things which were written by Rain Barnido in the post "Querubin for Senator?... Quid pro Querubin"

In the interest of fairness, I am posting Querubin's message here:

Dear Paul,

Good morning! I saw this in the wall of a Magdalo coordinator in Nueva Ecija. He reacted to the insults made by Sulbatz Mindanao and Rebolusyon ng Bayan for supporting me.

I had three wives one at a time. The first one was annulled, the second one died and the last is my present wife. I never had a mistress in my whole life. I lived a simple life and not a sinful life.

My wife's first marriage was annulled both in the church and civil courts.

We got married first in the States and later in a simple Church wedding in Puerto Princesa. We're members of the Couples for Christ and the Brotherhood of Christian Businessmen and Professionals.

I was never involved in any case involving moral turpitude.

I was afflicted with cerebral malaria in 1980 during an operation in the jungles of Tawi-tawi. I had very high fever which was why I was delusional. I was released fit for combat duty and 3 years later, I was meritoriously promoted 2 months ahead of the members of class 76 to which Gen Yano and Ibrado belong. I went on foreign studies several times and went on UN Mission, all requiring rigid Neuro-Psychiatric tests. I was promoted several times all needing the same requirements, the last of which was my promotion to full Colonel which was confirmed by the Commission on Appointments.

I've been through more than a dozen combat encounters that earned me the Medal of Valor, Distinguished Conduct Star and 7 Gold Cross Medals which manifested my stability under pressure. I was brought back to life in 1989 after being seriously injured by a Sykorsky rocket.

For more than 3 years of incarceration, this evil government was not able to come up with an issue to malign my name, not until the visit of GMA's troubleshooter/henchman. These are the people behind the demolition job against me in Victorina.blog.

I hope you will be enlightened as to why they're destroying me.

Best regards and God bless.

Col Ariel Querubin

Querubin's minions hack Dona Victorina blog

(Dona Victorina was hacked after posting the entry titled 'Querubin for Senator?... Quid pro Querubin. Perhaps the truth stung Colonel Ariel Querubin so badly, they just had to find someone to

hack the blog and take it down.

I wonder which of the many things said against Querubin hurt most? The fact that it was said that he has more than one wife or the fact it was said that someone is funding his campaign so that they can have a puppet in the senate?

Personally, I don't think people will vote for Querubin as Senator. For one, this soldier betrayed the very Constitution he swore an oath to protect and now he's running for a seat in the senate, to do what? What does he know about the legislative process? What makes him think he can contribute anything to the legislature? He's running for a seat in the senate, all for the wrong reasons and why should anyone vote for him?)

Querubin for Senator?... Quid pro Querubin

By Rain Barnido

Originally posted at www.donavictorina.blogspot.com

There is Mar Roxas with his multimillion media exposure that includes a padyak, paiyak-iyak and pamanhikan. There is Manny Villar, and his OFWs. There is Loren Legarda back to her sinta days. All ultra-rich politicians who are investing for 2010. They obviously can afford it. Then there is Ariel Querubin.The proliferation and density of tarpaulins bearing the image and likeness of one Ariel Querubin in Las Pinas, Paranaque and Makati (and reportedly in Ilocos Norte and Sur, Zamboanga del Norte and Sur) has led radio commentator Jake Maderazo to ask,

“Where did he get the money?

Why so many?

Doesn’t he know that the sheer numbers of these tarps make him look like a trapo?

“Well, we at Victorina would like to know, too. I, for one, would like to know how he can launch a multimedia campaign when his wife is apparently asking for support for his family needs from some

senators?How does a Marine officer, with the rank of colonel, make enough money to go into politics this way? Sure, being a Medal of Valor awardee entitled him to some financial benefits, but in 2007, the estimated average cost of running for Senator in this country was placed at nearly half a billion pesos. And while it is true the likes of Antonio Trillanes IV have set the precedent for running shoestring -budgeted campaigns, Querubin is not running under the same set of circumstances as the former Navy Lt(sg). Notably too, Querubin does not have the same set of credentials as a Danny Lim who is a West Point graduate and is currently being wooed by several political parties.

Querubin goes into this campaign already hounded by questions on his sanity (he was confined to V. Luna’s infamous Ward 25 for some time) and his profligate lifestyle. On the latter for instance, his room at his detention center in the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in Camp Aguinaldo looks like a hotel room (see picture) complete with Flat Screen TV. Compared to the austere deprivation in which his former commandant Major General Renato Miranda lives (in the same cellblock) Querubin’s lifestyle rattles the sensibilities. Perhaps he would also use the same lame old excuse robber-politicos and corrupt generals would also use to justify their mansions – I have a rich wife.

However, this excuse doesn’t hold water. First of all, which wife would Querubin be referring to? He has allegedly had three partners whom he has introduced as his wife...er, wives. His current partner, whose surname is Azcarraga is a housewife with no independent means of income. The next logical choice would be for him to say that the money is donated to him for his campaign. Fine, we accept that, BUT is he free to disclose the names of those donors? It should be public knowledge. We have a right to know from whom those donations come from, so that should Querubin take the government position he so desperately desires, we would also know which interests he might be compelled to protect. Some of our sources whisper that some very wealthy name-droppables in Makati business have made donations already. Or so he says. Our other sources however say otherwise. There have been donations, yes, that much is confirmed.

However, certain sources of ours suggest that those donations were not intended for his political campaign but were supposed to have been given assist fellow detainees. Whatever. The point is, Querubin has made some rather large election related expenses lately at a time when the campaign period has not even started. Aside from the obvious violation of the Election Code on premature campaigning, he is clearly spending like a trapo, to quote Maderazo.

Someday, someone will have to pay the piper.

Querubin must tell us, who that piper is.