The Anglophone Blind Spot

Ivana Park

 Geopolitics, energy and defence — the stories the anglosphere doesn't cover, can't read, or won't say.   The Blind Spot investigates the geopolitical, military and energy stories that never reach English-speaking audiences — locked behind language barriers, buried in regional media, or simply deemed too inconvenient to export. Hosted by Ivana, a Korean-British journalist based in Singapore with two decades of lived experience across the Gulf, Southeast Asia and Latin America, each episode moves forensically through the gap between what's happening and what you're being told. No noise. No agenda. Just the story. 

Episodes

  1. 31 MAR

    Dead Money: How Philippine Senators Hide Their Billions

    How does a public official with a maximum legitimate salary of ₱18 million over a six-year term accumulate billions in estimated real wealth? This investigative podcast dives deep into the "layered, adaptive ecosystem" of rent extraction and asset concealment within the Philippine Senate. Drawing from a comprehensive March 2026 investigative report, we expose the specific mechanisms used to hide these fortunes: from the "neo-pork" mutation of budget insertions to the use of offshore accounts in the British Virgin Islands and the systemic exploitation of SALN loopholes like the "acquisition-cost rule" and corporate shielding. Each episode uncovers the "enabling architecture" that protects this wealth, including a captured judiciary where 13 of 15 Supreme Court justices were appointed by a single administration, and an Ombudsman system that has seen its conviction rates plummet. We also examine the complex role of religious institutions that provide "electoral immunity" through bloc voting and tax-exempt wealth shields. Finally, we calculate the human cost of this corruption, revealing how ₱3 billion to ₱7 billion in recoverable assets could instead fund thousands of classrooms, scholarships, and rural health centres for the millions of Filipinos currently trapped in the "economics of survival"  Quick transparency note: the voices in this episode aren't real people. They're AI-generated voices chosen to bring the material to life. No human voice actors were harmed — or employed — in the making of this podcast.

    22 min

About

 Geopolitics, energy and defence — the stories the anglosphere doesn't cover, can't read, or won't say.   The Blind Spot investigates the geopolitical, military and energy stories that never reach English-speaking audiences — locked behind language barriers, buried in regional media, or simply deemed too inconvenient to export. Hosted by Ivana, a Korean-British journalist based in Singapore with two decades of lived experience across the Gulf, Southeast Asia and Latin America, each episode moves forensically through the gap between what's happening and what you're being told. No noise. No agenda. Just the story.