A manhunt for the alleged Filipino hacker of the government portal "gov.ph" and other government websites was launched after the suspect went into hiding, the police said Tuesday. Judge Antonio Eugenio of the Manila Regional Trial Court ordered the arrest of a certain JJ Maria Giner on January 24, 2005 for violating section 33a of the Electronic Commerce Law. Giner remains at large to date however.

"He's now on top of our priority list," said Police Superintendent Gilbert Sosa of the Anti-Transnational Crime Division (ATCD) of the Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG), in an interview. Sosa is also executive director of the Government Computer Security Incident Response Team (G-SIRT).