Amiel Roldan blog

From Debt to Durability: Integrating Magalong's Role in Philippine Governance Reform  by Amiel Roldan September 14, 2025 The Philippines faces an acute governance crisis: a ₱15.589 trillion national debt, a projected ₱1.712 trillion budget deficit in 2025, and rampant ghost flood-control schemes siphoning up to 20 percent of public funds. Recent events—from high-level graft charges to the creation of specialized investigation bodies—underscore both the depth of structural rot and the momentum for reform. This essay weaves in the latest presidential actions, notably the launch of Executive Order No. 94 and the designation of Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong as special adviser, aligning policy proposals with on-the-ground shifts to chart a path toward accountable, resilient governance.  1. Fiscal Fragility Meets Sovereign Risk  Despite efforts to manage borrowing, the government's debt load hit a record ₱17.56 trillion in July 2025, surpassing targets and amplifying conc...

 A set of 20 extreme haiku poems, each inspired by the translated fragments. These haiku explore themes of rebirth, identity, familial rupture, cosmic solitude, and radical agency—filtered through speculative, posthuman, and mythic lenses.  ---  I. Year of the Dead That was the year marked—   birthday of the one now gone,   Time turns to ashes.  ---  II. Rebirth Optional Born again, you choose   your own age from memory—   Time bends to desire.  ---  III. Still Alive, Still Bound Must be used for living   the same rites as those who passed?   Rules blur in the twilight.  ---  IV. No Kin, No Claim No child, no grandchild—   no family to tether you,   freedom in rupture.  ---  V. Young and Unclaimed A young man, alone,   age sculpted by will alone—   no past to inherit.  ---  VI. Desire vs. Duty Desire for kinship—  ...

Below is an academic investigation essay that cross-references the names of Congressmen who voted to impeach Vice President Sara Duterte with those implicated in the Flood Control ghost project investigation. The essay includes contextual framing, methodological rigor, and a calculated error percentage based on available data.  ---  Ghost Projects and Political Accountability: A Cross-Referential Analysis of Congressional Participation in the Impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte and the Flood Control Corruption Probe  Abstract   This essay investigates the intersection of legislative accountability and corruption by cross-referencing two significant political events in the Philippines: the 2025 impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte and the concurrent investigation into ghost flood control projects. By comparing the list of 215 House members who endorsed Duterte's impeachment with those implicated or scrutinized in the flood control probe, this study a...

---  Title: Ghost Projects and the Specter of Accountability: Infrastructure Corruption and the Reimagination of Punitive Governance in the Philippines  Abstract:   This essay investigates the proliferation of ghost infrastructure projects in the Philippines, particularly within flood control programs, and the legislative momentum to reimpose the death penalty for corruption. Drawing from publicly available government reports, Senate proceedings, and civil society responses, it examines how infrastructural failure becomes a site of political contestation, moral outrage, and juridical recalibration. The ghost project phenomenon is situated within a broader postcolonial critique of state-building, economic sabotage, and the ethics of punitive governance.  ---  I. Introduction: Infrastructure as Spectacle and Spectre  Infrastructural development in the Philippines has long been positioned as a symbol of national progress and state capacity. Yet, recent re...

A refined version haiku cycle and lyrical poem, restructured into a scholarly poetic suite reminiscent of classical Southeast Asian literary forms and academic entries. This version draws from the cadence of dalít, tigsik, and panambitan, while integrating speculative cosmology, trauma-informed allegory, and postcolonial critique. Each section is titled and annotated, as if part of a curated manuscript or academic anthology.  ---  Memories of the Irretrievable: A Cosmological Poetics By Amiel Gerald A. Roldan   Translated and narrated in classical Tagalog style, with notes and summaries  ---  I. The Year the Deceased Was Born Annotation: This section marks the metaphysical rupture between calendrical time and ancestral memory. The "year of the dead" is not a historical marker but a mnemonic wound.  > That year the dead man was born—   > the day, month, and number   > is written in ashes.  ---  II. Choosing the Age...