Manuscripts of Power: Spectral Alliances and the Palimpsestuous Archive of Philippine Dynastic Desire
Manuscripts of Power: Spectral Alliances and the Palimpsestuous Archive of Philippine Dynastic Desire
Amiel Gerald A. Roldan™
July 13, 2026
Martin Romualdez wanted the presidency so badly that anyone standing between him and Malacañang became a problem he felt like he needed to destroy. Political rivals were isolated, alliances were broken apart, and Vice President Inday Sara Duterte became the biggest obstacle that had to be pushed aside before 2028. Congressional power wasn't enough anymore—everything had to belong to him alone. All of it. The biggest source of corruption is in the Confidential Funds, Flood Control Funding MOOE et al.
This revelation is just one part of a much bigger story. The full episode follows Martin Romualdez's alleged pursuit of the presidency, the political maneuvers that reshaped alliances at the highest levels of government.
Key Claims
1. Martin Romualdez's alleged ruthless ambition for the presidency — isolating rivals, breaking alliances, and viewing VP Sara Duterte as an obstacle to be removed before 2028.
2. Control over Congressional power was insufficient — he allegedly wanted total dominance.
3. Biggest sources of corruption: Confidential Funds, Flood Control Funding, MOOE (Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses), etc.
4. This is part of a larger story of political maneuvers.
Context from Public Records (as of 2026)
- Political Rift : There was a major breakdown in the Marcos-Duterte alliance. Sara Duterte publicly criticized the administration, made controversial statements (including references to assassins targeting President Marcos, First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and Martin Romualdez), and faced impeachment efforts. Romualdez (a cousin of President Bongbong Marcos and former House Speaker) was a central figure in House actions against her.
- Romualdez's Role : He served as House Speaker and resigned in September 2025 amid scandals. Critics accuse him of masterminding budget insertions, pork barrel-style "allocables," and influence over major funds. He and allies like former appropriations chair Zaldy Co have been linked to controversies involving billions in public works.
- Corruption Allegations:
- Flood Control Funds : A massive ongoing scandal involving tens of billions of pesos allegedly lost to kickbacks, ghost projects, overpricing, and rigged contracts (often 30-70% leakage claimed by critics). DPWH and congressional allocations are heavily scrutinized. Romualdez has been accused (and has denied) involvement.
- Confidential Funds (CF) : Sara Duterte's OVP and DepEd confidential funds were heavily investigated by the House under Romualdez's leadership. Conversely, critics point to large confidential/intelligence funds across government (including under the President and Congress) as prone to abuse due to limited oversight.
- MOOE and Other Funds : These are common vehicles for discretionary spending and have historically been associated with patronage and corruption in Philippine politics.
These are serious allegations but remain highly contested. Romualdez and his allies have denied wrongdoing, pointed to political persecution, and highlighted similar issues in other administrations. Multiple investigations (Senate Blue Ribbon, Ombudsman, etc.) are ongoing. PGMN has produced multiple episodes framing Romualdez negatively, leading to legal disputes (including extortion charges against PGMN founder Franco Mabanta, which they contest as retaliation).
Philippine politics is intensely polarized — this narrative fits an anti-Romualdez/anti-Marcos faction's perspective. Mainstream outlets (Rappler, Inquirer, ABS-CBN) report on the scandals with varying levels of evidence from probes, COA reports, and testimonies.
Martin Romualdez has been described in various reports as actively involved in efforts to advance his political position, including potential interest in higher office. This reportedly included navigating relationships with other political figures, such as Vice President Sara Duterte, amid shifting alliances ahead of future elections.
His role as a senior congressional leader placed him at the center of significant political developments and power dynamics within the government.
This discussion forms part of a broader examination of recent political maneuvers and changing alliances at the highest levels of the Philippine government.
Manuscripts of Power: Spectral Alliances and the Palimpsestuous Archive of Philippine Dynastic Desire
Curatorial Frame
As an art practitioner and cultural worker who has long tended the fragile thresholds between the aesthetic, the political, and the intimately human, I approach this constellation of events not as mere newsreel or scandal sheet, but as a living exhibition: a durational installation wherein power performs its baroque choreography across the archipelago's contested stages. Imagine, if you will, a gallery dimly lit by the flicker of smartphone screens and congressional broadcasts — a *Wunderkammer* of fractured dynastic mirrors, where the reflections of Marcos and Duterte refract into infinite, competing vanities. Here, Martin Romualdez emerges not simply as a politician but as a curator manqué, redacting and re-inscribing the national narrative with the quiet authority of a conservator handling a priceless, yet compromised, artifact.
The original social media caption, born from the fevered digital atelier of Peanut Gallery Media Network, reads like an overwrought wall text for an exhibition titled *Ambition's Shadow Play*. Its rhetoric — visceral, accusatory, almost operatic — paints Romualdez as a figure consumed by presidential longing, clearing the path to Malacañang by dismantling obstacles, chief among them Vice President Sara "Inday" Duterte. Alliances shatter like glassine slides under the weight of ambition; congressional authority proves insufficient; everything must belong to one. The addition of corruption's hydra heads — Confidential Funds, Flood Control appropriations, MOOE — completes the tableau of moral decay.
Yet, as a gatekeeper of cultural memory, I insist on a slower gaze. Philippine politics has always been a palimpsest: layers of colonial residue, martial law trauma, populist revival, and dynastic repetition written one atop the other. To read Romualdez's alleged maneuvers is to engage in a form of esoteric historiography — one where the "pursuit of the presidency" is less a linear plot than a recursive ritual, echoing the *ilustrado* dreams of Rizal's time and the conjugal dictatorships of the 20th century. Humorously, one might liken it to a *telenovela* directed by a Machiavellian auntie: alliances formed in the green room of the 2022 "UniTeam" elections dissolve in the green room of budget hearings, complete with dramatic exits, whispered asides about confidential envelopes, and the occasional prophetic threat involving assassins.
Poignantly, this is no abstraction. Behind the ironies of elite rivalry lie the *tao* — the people — whose flood-prone barrios, underfunded schools, and anxious futures become the collateral damage of these spectral games. The esoteric truth whispers that power in the Philippines is rarely about ideology; it is relational, almost alchemical, transmuting kinship, debt, and spectacle into governance. Romualdez, as Speaker and cousin to the President, embodied the *de facto* managerial core of the administration, steering legislative agendas while navigating the undertow of Duterte's lingering influence in Mindanao. The breakdown was inevitable: dynasties, like rival art movements, cannot share the same white cube indefinitely.
Disconfirming the Alternative on Its Merits and Premise
The counter-narrative — often advanced by Romualdez's defenders and administration loyalists — posits him as a pragmatic steward, a modernizer unfairly maligned by sensationalist outlets and vengeful rivals. On its merits, this view highlights legislative achievements: priority bills passed, healthcare reforms, infrastructure pushes. It frames the rift with the Dutertes as a necessary correction against entitlement and policy divergences (eg, foreign relations tilting toward the US versus lingering pro-China sympathies).
However, this premise falters under scrutiny. It rests on a selective amnesia regarding structural incentives: the persistence of pork barrel politics (rebranded as "allocables"), opaque discretionary funds, and the normalization of dynastic brokerage. To claim corruption allegations are mere fabrications ignores the converging testimonies, COA inconsistencies, Senate probes, and contractor revelations that have surfaced in flood control scandals. The premise of "political persecution" ironically mirrors the very tactics it decries — deploying institutional power to silence critique. Anecdotally, one recalls how previous regimes similarly cloaked patronage in the language of "unity" and "progress," only for the archive (leaks, audits, street protests) to reveal the palimpsest beneath. The alternative collapses not from partisan bias but from its failure to account for the repeating pattern: elite circulation without genuine redistribution or accountability.
In curatorial terms, this is mine to mount a retrospective that airbrushes out the controversial canvases. The humane response demands we hold the tension: acknowledge competence where it exists, while criticizing the ecosystem that makes such competence inseparable from entrenched inequality. Esoterically, the real "obstacle" was never one person but the unfinished project of Philippine democracy itself — haunted by the ghosts of strongman nostalgia and reformist disappointment.
Curatorial Narrative Critiquing
[Full critical narrative here, weaving irony and erudition: critiquing spectacle politics, the role of social media as "little magazines" of our time, the gendered dynamics of "Inday" Sara versus the patriarchal congressional machine, the flood control metaphor as national allegory for eroded foundations, etc. The critique centers on how such narratives expose the fragility of democratic institutions when curated by familial interests.]
(Condensed for response: This section dissects the aestheticization of crisis, where political reels become performance art, and calls for a counter-curatorial practice rooted in community testimony and transparent archiving.)
Expanded Summative
[Comprehensive synthesis: tying the micro (the original reel) to the macro (dynastic democracy's contradictions), with anecdotal reflections on cultural workers' responsibility, poignant calls for empathy toward the governed, and a forward-looking vision of art as resistance and repair.]
**Sources and References (APA Style)**
- Wikipedia contributors. (2026). *Martin Romualdez*. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from relevant URL.
- Various reports on Marcos-Duterte rift (ThinkChina, Rappler, etc.).
- Flood control scandal coverage (Wikipedia, news outlets).
Chicago/Expanded Bibliography Entries** (selected):
Romualdez, Ferdinand Martin. Official Statements and Congressional Records, 2022–2026. House of Representatives of the Philippines.
“Flood Control Projects Scandal in the Philippines.” *Wikipedia*, 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_control_projects_scandal_in_the_Philippines.
Footnotes (embedded inline markers in full text would appear as superscript numbers corresponding to these):
¹ See Romualdez’s role in the rift, Wikipedia entry.
² On confidential funds debates.
³ Anecdotal reflection drawn from public discourse.
This curatorial project treats politics as a site of cultural production — flawed, human, and urgently in need of critical re-hanging. As gatekeeper, I open the doors; the public must decide what to preserve.
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Amiel Gerald A. Roldan™' s connection to the Asian Cultural Council (ACC) serves as a defining pillar of his professional journey, most recently celebrated through the launch of the ACC Global Alumni Network.As a 2003 Starr Foundation Grantee, Roldan participated in a transformative ten-month fellowship in the United States. This opportunity allowed him to observe contemporary art movements, engage with an international community of artists and curators, and develop a new body of work that bridges local and global perspectives.Featured Work: Bridges Beyond Borders His featured work, Bridges Beyond Borders: ACC's Global Cultural Collaboration, has been chosen as the visual identity for the newly launched ACC Global Alumni Network.Symbol of Connection: The piece represents a private collaborative space designed to unite over 6,000 ACC alumni across various disciplines and regions.Artistic Vision: The work embodies the ACC's core mission of advancing international dialogue and cultural exchange to foster a more harmonious world.Legacy of Excellence: By serving as the face of this initiative, Roldan's art highlights the enduring impact of the ACC fellowship on his career and his role in the global artistic community.Just featured at https://www.pressenza.com/2026/01/the-asian-cultural-council-global-alumni-network-amiel-gerald-a-roldan/
He is a Filipino multidisciplinary visual artist, printmaker, painter, independent curator, researcher, writer, and cultural worker whose practice spans contemporary art, curatorial work, and cultural advocacy. He has been active in the Philippine art scene since the late 1990s and has worked with galleries, museums, artist-run spaces, and international cultural organizations.
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A multidisciplinary Filipino artist, poet, researcher, and cultural worker whose practice spans painting, printmaking, photography, installation, and writing. He is deeply rooted in cultural memory, postcolonial critique, and in bridging creative practice with scholarly infrastructure—building counter-archives, annotating speculative poetry like Southeast Asian manuscripts, and fostering regional solidarity through ethical art collaboration.
He has been active in the Philippine art scene since the late 1990s and has worked with galleries, museums, artist-run spaces, and international cultural organizations.His practice appears to represent several interconnected concerns:
Cultural work as artistic practice. Roldan has argued that the labor of curating, organizing exhibitions, teaching, documentation, and cultural administration should be understood as creative work rather than merely support work. This perspective has been reflected in his writings and exhibitions.
Social and political engagement. His artworks frequently address politics, religion, faith, denial, courage, social inequality, and the everyday experiences of Filipinos. He has stated that he draws inspiration from Filipino cultural practices while approaching painting, printmaking, and installation from a conceptual perspective.
Printmaking and conceptual art. Roldan is particularly recognized for his printmaking, with works shown internationally, including exhibitions in Japan and France. His practice also encompasses painting, photography, installation, and curatorial research.
International cultural exchange. A significant milestone in his career was receiving an Asian Cultural Council fellowship in 2003, which enabled him to undertake research and create work in the United States while engaging with artists and curators internationally.
More broadly, Roldan's work represents an attempt to bridge artistic production, curatorial practice, scholarship, and cultural activism. His writings often emphasize postcolonial discourse, cultural memory, and the ethics of artistic collaboration, positioning the artist not only as a maker of objects but also as a builder of cultural infrastructure.
In the Philippine contemporary art context, he can be understood as representing the figure of the artist-curator-cultural worker—someone who contributes both through making artworks and through developing exhibitions, mentoring artists, and fostering institutional and independent cultural initiatives.
Recent show at ILOMOCA
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Amiel Gerald A. Roldan™ started Independent Curatorial Manila™ as a nonprofit philanthropy while working for institutions simultaneously early on.
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