Students are again in the forefront of a new wave of actions demanding truth and protesting against massive accounts of graft and corruption. While not solely dominated by students, the surging protests unite various opposition groups coming from a broad political spectrum of Erap, Cory, church and muslim leaders, civil society organizations and business organizations. At the core of the protest is the $329 million ZTE-NBN broadband scandal and the drama played by whistleblower Jun Lozada exposing a web of power and corruption involving President Arroyo, her family and high-level government officials. One may ask so what else is new?

Stories of the Garci sell-out, Fertilizer scam and now the ZTE-NBN China deal had been preceded by Erap's own version of the shadow cabinet and the jueteng deals capturing the state of Philippine political system with its deeply embedded corruption in government.

First Gentleman Mike Arroyo, the President's husband, is again caught in the scandal. Mr. Arroyo allegedly told Jose de Venecia III, son and namesake of the Speaker of the House of Representatives to "back off" from the National Broadband Network project which was later clinched by ZTE of China under questionable and scandalous circumstances. Commission on Elections Chairman Benjamin Abalos purportedly tried to influence the NBN project and, according to the younger De Venecia, received bribes from ZTE.

ZTE and the Philippine government, represented by Transportation and Communications Sec. Leandro Mendoza signed the contract in April this year.But the government later claimed to have lost the contract and refused to disclose details of the project, prompting the younger De Venecia and Vice Governor Rolex Suplico to file a suit before the Supreme Court. The court issued a temporary restraining order against the project last Sept. 11.

President Arroyo initially barred her cabinet members from attending Senate investigations on the issue, but later relented due to intense public pressure. Senate hearings explicitly showed how cabinet members trace the roots of the deal straight to the palace with Comelec Chairman Abalos and NEDA Secretary Romulo Neri confronting each other and Secretary Neri finally envoking executive privelege.

Despite the scandal, President Arroyo refuses to cancel or rescind the NBN-ZTE contract.

The trail of corruption has been long and thorny in the Philippines. The public outrage is evident in February 29 multisectoral rally attended by the middle class.

The Philippines remains poor despite rapid economic growth of countries within the Southeast Asian region. Absolute poverty afflicts more than a third of the population, and inequality is highest in comparison to Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. The country is also beset by continuing armed conflict between the government and various rebel groups including communist insurgents and Muslim dissidents. In the case of Mindanao alone, continuing armed conflict between Philippine government forces and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has displaced around 400,000 people.

With the erosion of government, the challenge of addressing basic delivery of services in education and health has been stalled by problems of governance causing the further slide of government allocation for social services like health, education and agrarian reform in terms of budget.

In the last two decades, the Philippines has continuously confronted political turbulence which continue to erode the credibility of its political leadership and state institutions to be instruments of reform that could effectively improve living conditions, undertake institutional change, reform government and enhanced internal security. After three EDSA's that toppled two governments, numerous coup attempts, hundreds of citizen's mobilizations, 76 million people in the Philippines remain confronted with about a third of its population living below the one-dollar a day poverty line.