Murals honoring Macario Sakay, Lean Alejandro, and other heroes on permanent display at the Linangan GalleryART AND THE STUTTER OF HISTORY
REDEFINING “ REVOLUTIONARY”A two-storey mural inside the Polytechnic University of the Philippines
challenges definitions of heroism
Open until May 30
10:00 AM to 6:00 PM
(Except Sundays and Holidays)
Linangan Gallery of the Constantino Foundation
38 Panay Avenue, Quezon City
Constantino Foundation2025-09-22T23:40:03+08:00
Spotlight

We Can Choose Honor

A sense of honor is one of the simplest lessons our nation's mightiest heroes can impart. But it's a teaching we can absorb only by[READ]

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Padayon Pagbukwat Han Aton Mga Kaagi: An International Lecture Series on World War II Leyte

Karmina Constantino-Torres, Trustee of the Constantino Foundation, will be speaking on Oct. 18 and launching A Past Revisited in the event. Look at all the speakers too – such an incredibly compelling lineup. Congratulations in advance to the Leyte-Samar Heritage Society and all the schools and institutions that have helped organize this wonderful event. Mabuhay!

 

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Pasts Revisited

We Can Choose Honor

A sense of honor is one of the simplest lessons our nation’s mightiest heroes can impart. But it’s a teaching we can absorb only by remembering better, by wielding our usable past.

This month marks the 114th year since Jose Abad Santos, the nation’s fifth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, passed the Bar Exams in October 1911. The occasion is an auspicious reminder, for we cannot avoid the subject of law given fresh revelations of plunder perpetrated, yet again, by the country’s so-called lawmakers, in connivance with criminals in the bureaucracy and private contractors.

Part of a storied family in Pampanga, at 10 years-old Jose Abad Santos served as a courier to the fledgling forces of the Philippine Republic during the Philippine-American War. His father, Don Vicente, was tortured and killed by Spanish authorities, who dragged his lifeless body from town to town to dissuade rebellious elements; his older brother was the radical intellectual Pedro Abad Santos who fought for the rights of the peasantry.

After the war, Jose would dive into studies in the United States where he obtained requisite degrees in law. He would return to the Philippines and serve “with distinction in legal positions, government services and on the Philippine Supreme Court as an Associate Justice, and finally as Chief Justice.”

Requested by Manuel Quezon in 1942 to join the government escaping the fast-closing fascist dragnet of the Japanese, Abad Santos declined and chose to stay. Quezon thus bestowed on Chief Justice Abad Santos powers equal to an Acting President of the Commonwealth, on top of his duties as Secretary of Finance, Agriculture, and Commerce.

Warned that “he might be captured and killed by the Japanese,” Abad Santos replied: “If such is my fate, I am ready to meet it; but in the meantime, I shall continue discharging the duties which the president has vested on me.”

Abad Santos and his son Pepito were captured in Cebu by the Japanese on 11 April 1942. Ordered to swear allegiance to the Japanese Occupation, Abad Santos refused and was sentenced to death, though his son was spared. In Lanao del Sur, just before his execution by a firing squad, Abad Santos told his son not to cry: “It’s a rare opportunity for me to die for our country. Not everyone is given that chance.”

Abad Santos could have chosen exile and survival, but he chose honor instead of collaborating with the enemy. His was a choice that is today posed daily to officers of public office, from the president, vice president, legislators, down to the lowest government clerk. It is a choice to refuse collaboration with the enemy inside—those who offer the acid of ill-gained wealth that today corrodes all levels of public service. Because honor is not a mere costume worn only during wartime; it is a compass that should guide us every day. #JoseAbadSantos #Dangal #aPastRevisited #UsablePast #LahatNgKurakotIkulong

Sources:

“The Execution of Jose Abad Santos,” Official Gazette, https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/about/gov/judiciary/sc/cj/jose-abad-santos/the-execution-of-jose-abad-santos/

“Feb. 19, 1886: The birth of Chief Justice Jose Abad Santos, WWII hero,” Dennis Edward Flake, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 18 February 2025. See https://usa.inquirer.net/166685/feb-19-1886-the-birth-of-chief-justice-jose-abad-santos-wwii-hero

Image notes:

Photo of statue of Jose Abad Santos in Museo Ning Angeles, Pampanga, taken July 2024. ©ConstantinoFoundation

Photo of bust of Jose Abad Santos, undated sculpture by Guillermo Tolentino, from the National Museum, taken January 2024. ©ConstantinoFoundation

October 1, 2025|
Events
Videos
Stories

Padayon Pagbukwat Han Aton Mga Kaagi: An International Lecture Series on World War II Leyte

October 9, 2025|

Karmina Constantino-Torres, Trustee of the Constantino Foundation, will be speaking on Oct. 18 and launching A Past Revisited in the event. Look at all the speakers too - such an incredibly compelling lineup. Congratulations in advance to the Leyte-Samar Heritage Society and all the schools and institutions that have helped organize this[READ]

Filipinas in history as Superheroes? Oh yes. See them reimagined in an exciting new exhibit in Quezon City! #FightLikeGirls!

October 3, 2025|

Filipinas in history as Superheroes? Oh yes. See them reimagined in an exciting new exhibit in Quezon City! #FightLikeGirls!Alas ng Bayan 2.0 is a riveting new contribution to an exhibition series celebrating the unbroken line of Filipina heroism in our people’s past, from the 19th century to the present. First launched in[READ]

We Can Choose Honor

October 1, 2025|

A sense of honor is one of the simplest lessons our nation's mightiest heroes can impart. But it's a teaching we can absorb only by remembering better, by wielding our usable past. This month marks the 114th year since Jose Abad Santos, the nation’s fifth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, passed[READ]

Mark Your Calendars: A Past Revisited Book Launch & History Forum – October 3!

September 25, 2025|

As part of the preparations for the arrival of Severe Tropical Storm Opong—with classes and government work in several areas of Luzon already suspended for Friday and Saturday, September 26–27—the Book Launch of The Philippines: A Past Revisited (50th Anniversary Special Edition) and the History Forum scheduled for tomorrow, September 26, 2025,[READ]

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