Summative Philosophical Essay: On the Ontology of the Image, the Ethics of Framing, and the Fragility of Truth in the Tribunal of History
Summative Philosophical Essay: On the Ontology of the Image, the Ethics of Framing, and the Fragility of Truth in the Tribunal of History
Amiel Gerald A. Roldan™
September 4, 2026
Affidavit of Denial – Transcription and Collation
Republic of the Philippines
Davao City …………………… J.S.S.
AFFIDAVIT OF DENIAL
I, BEN JASON TESIORNA, of legal age, Filipino and with address at Diamond Heights, Brgy. Communal, Davao City, Philippines after being duly sworn to in accordance with law, do hereby depose and say that:
1. Last February 23, 2026, I was monitoring the ICC Confirmation of Charges against former President Rodrigo R. Duterte (FPRRD).
2. During the opening statement of an ICC Prosecutor, Julian Nicholls, I saw that he presented a certain video before the court (ICC) and broadcasted worldwide, with English sub-titles.
3. I respectfully inform the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I and Pros. Mr. J. Nicholls that I was the one who took and recorded the same video on December 19, 2015, during the media showcase of the newly-installed CCTV system of the Central 911 of Davao City. I was then a journalist-writer of Sun Star Davao.
4. I own the copyright over said video and have not authorized anybody, nor the ICC Prosecutor, to show or broadcast the same for any purpose.
5. Since after recording the same video in my personal mobile phone, any and all showing or broadcast thereafter of the same video without my permission is considered illegal in any jurisdiction. The video is not public, and therefore, requires my explicit permission.
6. Also, the video shown during the Confirmation of Charges had English Subtitles, to make it appear and ascribe the voices allegedly to certain persons, including allegedly that of FPRRD. But, the English Subtitles were not recorded when I first recorded the events. The subtitle was clearly another unauthorized and illegal tampering of said video.
7. Also, I have not been contacted by any ICC investigator or that Prosecutor who presented it before the ICC PT I, even before it was shown or broadcasted. I, therefore, deny any association to that tampered and/or spliced video. Mr. Nicholls’ showing and broadcasting worldwide of my video has tainted my reputation and put me and my family in danger, as if I cooperated with him and the ICC prosecution, which I deny as well.
8. Besides, the ICC Prosecutor made misrepresentation when He showed the video to malign and/or present FPRRD/Duterte in a bad light when he made it appear to be connected with extra-judicial killing (EJK) or crimes against humanity; or that FPRRD did not do anything about the killing shown in the video.
9. I vehemently assert that my video recording was not about EJK, nor about crimes against humanity nor about the killing shown in the video.
10. I took that video when Central 911 showcased the capability of the newly-installed CCTV in Davao City. Central 911 showed that CCTV as being comparable to that in Makati City, which was ahead then in that technology.
11. The alleged killing shown in the CCTV was not in “real-time”, as there was no killing simultaneous or while CCTV footage was playback or that while we were all watching the CCTV footage. It was just a footage of a past killing were the CCTV is very clear, capable of capturing such crime.
12. I am very positive that there was no killing simultaneous to the showing of the CCTV footage (or not in “real time”) because no one, including myself and other journalists reacted to report the matter to the police. It was very clear, that no one in the room rushed to call the police, nor any other City official present nor FPRRD/note himself. Central 911 just showed the CCTV footage as proof that this new CCTV system can capture clear footages, which can be recorded to, if needed, including accidents, traffic, crimes and/or weather, even in “real-time” or for review and playback.
13. But, as it turned out, the ICC Prosecutor twisted the facts by making it appear that FPRRD did not react nor ordered the police to respond to that particular crime, while allegedly the crime was being committed. No one, including FPRRD, reacted because it was not “real-time”. It was just a showing of the capability of the CCTV. Besides, my full and unedited video showed that FPRRD “arrived” at the end of the video and that presentation then that the killing in the CCTV will be blamed on him, which is what ICC Pros Mr. Nicholls just did.
14. The police can confirm that no case of killing as shown, to have happened on December 19, 2015, in that particular place. I reserve to present proof if necessary. I have a separate news report of that Agdao incident on December 4, 2015, which the police already investigated, even before that CCTV was presented to media, contrary to Mr. Nicholls’ assertion, that FPRRD did nothing to investigate those death of malicious elements.
15. Therefore, I respectfully request the ICC Pre Trial I to order the ICC Prosecutor to issue an apology for his misrepresentation, and to remove the same video from the court registry or records.
16. I also humbly demand a Public Apology from the ICC Prosecutor himself for his misrepresentation and/or inaccuracies, by Friday, February 27, 2026, or before end of Confirmation of Charges.
17. Failure and/or refusal to issue a Public Apology will cause me to seek redress against said ICC Prosecutor and others involved, including but not limited to cyberlibel, damages, copyright infringement, etc.
18. I hope this clarifies the matter, as I execute this affidavit to attest to the truthfulness or veracity of the foregoing facts, and for whatever legal purposes this may serve.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this FEB 26 2026 in Davao City, Philippines.
BEN JASON TESIORNA
Affiant
ID CPA Passport P0398601B
SUBSCRIBED AND SWORN to before me this FEB 26 2026, at Davao City, Philippines, affiant acknowledging to me that this sworn statement is his free and voluntary act and deed. I have personally examined the affiant and am satisfied that he understood the contents thereof.
[Notarial details, Doc. No., Page No., Book No., Series of 2026, with seal and signature of Notary Public]
Accompanying context from the image overlay
Headline: “Davao Journalist, Naglabas ng Affidavit vs. ICC sa Umano’y ‘Tampered’ CCTV Video”
Date: February 26, 2026
The document is presented against a background image of a formal-looking man (appearing to be in a suit, gesturing), consistent with public coverage of the ICC proceedings.
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Collation
The affidavit constitutes a formal, sworn denial by Ben Jason Tesiorna, the original recorder of a 2015 CCTV demonstration video taken during a Central 911 media showcase in Davao City. He asserts sole copyright ownership, absence of any authorization for its use by the ICC Prosecutor Julian Nicholls, and material alteration through the addition of English subtitles that ascribe voices and context not present in the original recording. He further contends that the presentation misrepresented the footage as contemporaneous evidence of inaction by former President Rodrigo R. Duterte during an extrajudicial killing, whereas the recording was a technical demonstration of playback capability of past events. No simultaneous crime occurred during the showcase; no immediate police response was triggered because none was warranted. The affiant demands removal of the video from ICC records and a public apology, reserving civil and criminal remedies for copyright infringement, misrepresentation, and related harms. The instrument is notarized on the date of execution (26 February 2026) and frames the dispute as one of evidentiary integrity, intellectual property, and reputational injury within an international criminal proceeding.
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Summative Philosophical Essay: On the Ontology of the Image, the Ethics of Framing, and the Fragility of Truth in the Tribunal of History
In the shadowed theater of international justice, where the archive of human atrocity is curated under the stern gaze of the International Criminal Court, a single fragment of recorded light—pixels captured on a journalist’s mobile phone in December 2015—has been elevated from local demonstration to purported emblem of systemic violence. Ben Jason Tesiorna’s affidavit of denial does not merely contest a procedural irregularity; it stages a profound confrontation with the very conditions under which historical truth is constituted, authenticated, and weaponized. What appears at first as a dispute over copyright and subtitles discloses, upon deeper interrogation, an esoteric drama concerning the ontology of the technical image, the politics of framing, and the metaphysical precarity of testimony in an age when mediation itself becomes the primary site of power.
The video, in its original state, was never a document of crime. It was a demonstration of capacity: the newly installed CCTV system of Davao’s Central 911 was exhibited as an optical prosthesis capable of capturing, storing, and replaying events with forensic clarity. The “killing” visible within it belonged to an earlier temporal register—an incident already investigated, already archived, already past. When the same sequence is later extracted, subtitled, and projected before the Pre-Trial Chamber as if it were simultaneous with presidential inaction, a subtle but decisive metaphysical operation occurs. The image is severed from its indexical origin and re-inscribed within a narrative of moral failure. The addition of English subtitles functions not as neutral translation but as a performative speech-act that ascribes agency, voice, and culpability where the raw visual field remained silent. In this act of linguistic overcoding, the ICC prosecutor performs what philosophers of media have long recognized as the violence of the frame: the decision of what shall count as visible, audible, and therefore juridically relevant.
Here the affidavit becomes more than a legal instrument; it is a counter-ontology. Tesiorna reclaims the image as private intellectual property, thereby asserting a residual sovereignty of the original recorder against the universalizing claim of international justice. Copyright, in this context, is not merely commercial; it is the juridical expression of the right to control the conditions of appearance. By refusing authorization and by insisting upon the absence of contemporaneity, the affiant attempts to restore the image to its proper temporal and intentional horizon. The demonstration was never intended as evidence of presidential indifference; it was a technological boast. To treat the playback as real-time is to commit a category error of the first order—an error that transforms a technical exhibition into a moral indictment.
Yet the deeper philosophical tension lies in the status of the technical image itself. As thinkers from Benjamin to Flusser to Agamben have observed, the photographic or videographic image occupies a liminal space between presence and absence, between index and icon. It is both a trace of the real and a construction susceptible to endless recontextualization. When such an image enters the courtroom of history, it does not simply “show” what happened; it participates in the production of what will have happened. The ICC’s use of the footage, if the affidavit’s claims are accurate, exemplifies the risk that the tribunal of memory may become a laboratory for the retroactive manufacture of guilt through selective temporal framing. The past is not merely retrieved; it is re-timed.
This raises an esoteric question of justice: can a court that claims universal jurisdiction over crimes against humanity itself become the agent of a secondary violence—the violence of misrepresentation? The demand for apology and removal of the video is, at one level, a request for procedural rectification. At another, it is a plea for the restoration of a certain epistemic humility: the recognition that not every image is available for appropriation, that the original intentionality of the recorder retains a moral claim even against the highest institutions of international law. In an era of digital proliferation, where every fragment of recorded life can be detached, subtitled, and redeployed, the affidavit stands as a rare insistence upon the integrity of the origin.
Philosophically, the episode invites reflection on the fragility of truth under conditions of mediation. Truth is not a stable substance waiting to be extracted from the archive; it is a fragile relation between image, context, intention, and temporal fidelity. When that relation is broken—when a demonstration of optical power is reframed as evidence of political powerlessness—the very possibility of historical judgment is compromised. The journalist’s sworn denial thus functions as a philosophical protest against the colonization of the local by the universal, of the technical by the moral, of the past by the prosecutorial present.
In the end, the affidavit does not resolve the larger questions surrounding the Duterte era or the legitimacy of the ICC’s project. It does something more modest and, perhaps, more radical: it reminds us that every act of framing is also an act of exclusion, that every subtitle is a decision about whose voice shall be heard, and that the technical image, once released into the currents of international justice, can never be fully returned to its origin. The demand for apology is therefore not merely personal; it is an appeal to the court to acknowledge the limits of its own representational power. Whether that appeal is heard remains, for now, suspended in the same uncertain light that first captured the disputed footage more than a decade ago.
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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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