Malaya chief of reporters and columnists Ellen Tordesillas called me a while ago to tell me that her popular blog ellentordesillas.com is undergoing some sort of “denial of service” attack.

Ma’am Ellen said that her internet hosting provider is noticing “unusual” and “abnormal” number of spam being sent to the comments section of her blog — which has eaten up most if not all of the bandwidth alloted to her.

On regular days, about 11,000 people visit ellentordesillas.com. Of late and as we approach the gigantic interfaith rally Friday, the number has risen to 14,000 and up.

Just recently, she already upgraded her hosting package a few days ago to accommodate the rising number of visitors to her blog. Now, the new bandwidth had been exceeded, no thanks to some “professional spammers” who have seen it fit to spam the site so others won’t be able to read her “hot” posts.

Ma’am Ellen also says that other popular political blogs such as quezon.ph and uniffors.com are also experiencing similar problems.

Who’s behind these attacks? Of course, we are not that naive not to assume that President Arroyo’s henchmen may have had enough of the online “beating” they normally receive from Ma’am Ellen. But they only have themselves to blame for it. They commit crimes, they pay for it.

But is this how the Arroyo government responds to criticisms hurled against it by Ma’am Ellen and other political bloggers and journalists? To deny them their space in the net through sheer terror tactics such as “denial of service” attacks?