here was high drama in the Senate these past few weeks keeping many in the Philippines riveted to their television sets. The events sad-to-say  revealed the seedy side of politics: patronage politics Philippine-style.

At the center of the maelstrom was COMELEC Chairman, Benjamin Abalos a senior career politician preparing in fact for his upcoming retirement. Abalos was the point person behind the National Broadband Network (NBN) project. A project that would have created a broadband network for the exclusive use of the Philippine Government. It would stretch from Apari in the North to Jolo in the South, and interconnect all government agencies with high-speed voice and data and video communications.

For Abalos, this project would have been his "final hurrah." Although the project was far afield from his area of expertise as the Chairman of the the Commission on Elections, Abalos nonetheless was it's leading proponent. He played golf with the top honchos of ZTE, the Chinese company that eventually won the NBN contract. He made sure heads of other government agencies that would have a say in the approval of the project were on his side. This was after all, his baby. If the project pushed through, his kids and grand kids might never have to work a day in their lives. This project would be his going out with a bang! But like corrupt public officials before him, he knew it couldn't be too loud a bang. There would be hell to pay if the taxpaying public got wind of the fact that the $329-million dollar project they would be paying for was worth only about half that much.

For a while, it seemed that things were moving as planned until Joey de Venecia III, a young upstart, and son of House Speaker Joe de Venecia also wanted "in" on the deal and wouldn't take no for an answer—even if it came from Mike Arroyo, the President's husband himself, as Joey alleges. The young de Venecia claimed that Abalos was "shaking-down" the ZTE executives for his cut on the deal. Abalos of course denies this. At that point it was just de Venecia's word against Abalos'. But Then, it all came to a head during the Senate hearing on September 26, 2007, when former National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) Director-General Romulo Neri testified under oath that believed that Abalos offered him a 200-million peso bribe in exchange for NEDA's approval of the NBN deal.

What was even more revealing was the fact that Neri said he told the President about the incident shortly thereafter for which the President told him to reject the bribe. After those statements before the Senate, Neri seemed to clam-up and refused to reveal more about what Malacanang knew, invoking Executive Privilege.

Just as Watergate lead to US President Nixon's downfall, "NBNgate" could lead to President Arroyo's. US Senator Howard Baker asked the crucial question during the Senate Watergate hearings, "What did the president know and when did he know it?" That same question needs to be asked of President Arroyo.

The majority of expatriate Filipinos who now live in "first-world" countries where politicians and government employees are held to a higher standard will not accept anything less than a full explanation as to what Gloria Arroyo knew and when did she know about it. Did she look the other way when Neri told her about Abalos' bribe? And what sort of involvement does her husband Mike Arroyo have in all this? Did the Arroyo's stand to gain monetarily if the deal went through?

It is time Filipinos also held their leaders to a higher standard. Politicians after all, from Ferdinand Marcos onward have taken the Philippines from being the leader in Southeast Asia to being laggard in the region. Overseas and expatriate Filipinos are no longer going to tolerate corruption and incompetence nor are they going to take things sitting down.