The Eternal Recurrence of Form and Allegiance:
The Eternal Recurrence of Form and Allegiance: Philippine Art as Circular Economy in the Adjudication of Citizenship and the Infinite Loop of Political-Aesthetic Judgment
Amiel Gerald A. Roldan™
October 18, 2026
In the recursive architecture of Philippine constitutional life, the Senate Electoral Tribunal’s 6–3 denial of the motion for reconsideration in the quo warranto petition against Senator Erwin Tulfo does not terminate. It recirculates. The procedural envelope of lateness, formal insufficiency, and the regenerative clause “without prejudice” returns the substantive question of exclusive Philippine allegiance to perpetual availability. This legal circuit finds its precise aesthetic analogue—and its philosophical intensification—in the deep structures of Philippine art. Across indigenous cosmologies, colonial hybridities, modern social realism, and contemporary installation practices, Philippine art has long operated as a circular economy of form and substance, surface and loob, imported technique and autochthonous allegiance. The present essay collates the juridical loop previously examined with the aesthetic loop of Philippine visual and performative traditions, expanding both into an esoteric critical meditation on the infinite return of contested membership.
I. Indigenous Circles: The Pre-Colonial Economy of Recurrence
Long before the formalist rules of the 2020 SET Guidelines, Philippine indigenous thought already refused linear disposal. In the cosmologies of the Ifugao, the Kalinga, the Manobo, and the Visayan, time is not progressive but regenerative. The rice-cycle, the anito cycle, the babaylan’s trance-return—all enact a closed yet never-closed loop in which the material of the world (land, spirit, body) is continuously disassembled and reintegrated. Form (ritual gesture, carved bulul, woven pattern) does not contain substance (ancestral presence, communal vitality); rather, form is the regenerative mechanism that keeps substance circulating. A bulul figure is not a static representation of an ancestor; it is a temporary vessel through which the ancestor returns, only to be re-released into the next ritual economy.
This indigenous circularity supplies the first philosophical hinge. The SET’s insistence on formal compliance—deadline, service, sufficiency of form—mirrors the ritual insistence on correct gesture. Yet the tribunal’s simultaneous reservation that the petition may be refiled “without prejudice” echoes the indigenous refusal of final extinction: the spirit of the claim (citizenship, exclusive allegiance) remains available for re-embodiment. The three dissenting senators, in privileging the substantive question of Philippine citizenship over procedural lateness, enact a contemporary babaylanic insistence that the loob of membership cannot be extinguished by the envelope of form. Their dissent is not transgression; it is the aesthetic and cosmological return of substance into the circuit.
II. Colonial Hybridity and the Double Circulation of Allegiance
Spanish and American colonial regimes introduced a different circular economy: the continuous extraction of indigenous form, its transformation into colonial substance, and its re-export as “Philippine” culture. The santo becomes both Catholic icon and anito survival; the bandeau of the barong becomes both Hispanic status marker and subtle assertion of native craft. Dual allegiance—outward conformity, inward retention—is the colonial condition itself. The allegation against Tulfo (prior U.S. citizenship, U.S. Army service, incomplete renunciation) is merely the latest iteration of this colonial double circulation. The formalist majority of the SET performs the colonial administrator’s role: the papers must be in order. The dissenting minority performs the colonial subject’s role: the papers cannot extinguish the question of where the heart resides.
Philippine modern art made this double circulation explicit. Fernando Amorsolo’s luminous rice fields are not pure pastoral; they are the aesthetic recirculation of Spanish picturesque and American commercial demand, re-presented as national essence. Victorio Edades and the Thirteen Moderns reversed the polarity: they imported Cubist and Expressionist form in order to force Philippine substance (urban poverty, colonial residue) into visibility. In both cases, form and substance trade places without ever achieving final synthesis. The infinite loop is the condition of postcolonial representation.
III. Social Realism and the Political Recurrence of the 1970s–1980s
The Martial Law period intensified the circular economy into a political aesthetic. Social realist painters—Bencab, Antipas Delotavo, Pablo Baens Santos, the Kaisahan group—treated the canvas as a regenerative site where the material of oppression (bodies under truncheon, the face of the desaparecido) could be continuously reprocessed into public memory. Form (the graphic, the poster, the mural) was never allowed to become pure technique; substance (the demand for justice) refused final disposal even after EDSA I. Each subsequent political crisis—EDSA II, the Ampatuan massacre, the drug war—has returned the same visual vocabulary. The art does not progress; it recirculates.
Lacson’s speculative imputation of “deeper motives” to the three dissenting senators participates in precisely this social-realist circuit. The imputation converts a finished institutional act into unfinished moral narrative, ensuring that the controversy re-enters public circulation under a new valence. The aesthetic parallel is exact: just as a social-realist painting of a 1970s arrest can be re-exhibited in 2026 as commentary on present detention practices, so the citizenship question, formally dismissed, remains available for re-exhibition in the next properly framed petition or the next political campaign. The “without prejudice” clause is the juridical equivalent of the artist’s decision to leave the work open-ended.
IV. Contemporary Installation and the Diasporic Loop
In the work of contemporary Philippine artists who themselves inhabit dual or multiple citizenship—Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan, Kidlat Tahimik, the diaspora practices of the New York and California Filipino artists—the circular economy becomes literal. The Aquilizans’ packing-crate installations treat the material of migration (balikbayan boxes, personal effects) as continuously disassembled and re-assembled across borders. Citizenship papers themselves become sculptural objects: form that claims to settle substance, yet whose very portability proves that substance (belonging) remains in transit. Kidlat Tahimik’s films enact the same loop: the indigenous and the global continuously re-enter each other without hierarchical resolution.
The Tulfo controversy is already an installation. The SET decision, Lacson’s X posts, the minority dissent, the public speculation—all are materials placed in a temporary gallery of public discourse. The formal rules attempt to pack the controversy into a sealed crate marked “dismissed.” The dissenters and the “without prejudice” clause leave the crate open. Philippine contemporary art has long understood that the most truthful representation of membership under conditions of historical hybridity is the open crate.
V. The Esoteric Closure That Does Not Close
We arrive, therefore, at the esoteric core. The infinite loop is not a metaphor imposed upon either law or art; it is the shared ontological condition of both under Philippine historical experience. Form (SET rules, artistic medium, ritual gesture) is the regenerative mechanism that prevents substance (allegiance, identity, spirit) from being finally extracted and discarded. Substance is the force that continually forces form to reopen. Neither can extinguish the other. The three dissenting votes, the majority’s formal rigor, Lacson’s speculative critique, the possibility of refiling—all are moments in a single circular economy whose materials are citizenship, technique, motive, and memory.
Philippine art teaches the constitutional order what the constitutional order already practices without acknowledging: that membership is never finally adjudicated. It is only ever re-circulated. The bulul returns. The santo returns. The social-realist body returns. The packing crate returns. The quo warranto petition, properly or improperly framed, will return. The loop does not seek exit. It seeks only the next rigorous, beautiful, contested re-integration of form and allegiance.
In this shared circular economy, the legal and the aesthetic cease to be separate domains. They become two surfaces of the same regenerative process—the endless Philippine work of making and re-making the conditions under which one may claim to belong.
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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 group show at ILOMOCA
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