Features

Binondo Day

We celebrate Binondo Day by sharing the post of a group that’s very much involved in nation-building. As ignorance fuels hate, so must we feed our senses – with history. If you haven’t tried one of their tours yet, we encourage you to seek them out. They’re mostly young folks from different offices and courses who’ve come together because of a common inspiration: our country’s past. They desire change for the better just like you, a rebirth, if you wish, as their name suggests. Thanks to their work they help reveal where we came from and who we are as a people.

Now: where exactly do we need to go, and what is the common future we must build together? Ah. That is no longer for Renacimiento Manila to decide. That question we must answer together – [READ]

RENATO2026-03-30T18:41:21+08:00March 29, 2026|

We’re in this month’s Enrich Magazine of Mercury Drugstore!

Hooray! We hosted the lovely Batch 68 of St. Theresa’s High School in October 2024, and one of the participants (thank you, Eve Angcanan!) wrote an essay about the exchanges. The Foundation certainly had a great time, one made memorable because of a particular quality that stood out among the women of Batch 68 – all of them were so mighty curious.

The high level of curiosity displayed by Batch 68 is remarkable, a quality we hope Filipinos will emulate. Older, or younger, curiosity ensures a sense of discovery is constant in our lives, which is enriching but also liberating, especially when it merges with interest in history, our common past, and our common need to overcome challenges that lie ahead.

Get yourself a copy of the magazine, available [READ]

RENATO2026-02-11T15:59:27+08:00February 11, 2026|

Moving words from the Hunters-ROTC Historical Society

Moving words from the Hunters-ROTC Historical Society, shared today at the launch of the 50th anniversary edition of A Past Revisited. Enjoy, share, act!

Written by President Rhett Daza.

RENATO2025-09-04T15:02:45+08:00August 26, 2025|

Tagteam for Nationalism: Popular Book Store and the Constantino Foundation

If you are looking for books by Renato Constantino or Letizia Roxas Constantino, Popular Book Store is your main shop. Popular remains the main distributor of the Constantino Foundation, thanks to decades of friendship between the book store’s founder, Joaquin Po, and the historian Renato Constantino [...]

RENATO2026-03-18T01:36:21+08:00March 13, 2025|Tags: MainStories|

Renato Constantino Jr: The man who ‘apcet’ the world about East Timor

MUCH has been written about the courage, rock-steady principles and tireless activism of Renato Constantino Jr., “RC” to most, since he died on April 5 at the age of 79.He was, after all, present — nay, taking a key role though much of the time behind the scenes unless truly needed — in most of the game-changing campaigns of the last five decades.Think September 1991, when the Philippine Senate voted to end the US bases treaty. [...]

RENATO2025-06-09T17:58:41+08:00March 7, 2025|

PUP marks 120th founding year with climate, mobility, history ride

The Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) launched Sintang Lakbay today, a pioneering initiative integrating inclusive mobility, culture, and history. The move highlights the school’s resolve to demonstrate the relevance of its academic philosophy in the face of current climate-constrained realities. [...]

RENATO2026-03-02T16:03:09+08:00March 7, 2025|

What remains of Carlos Fressel?

What remains of Carlos Fressel? There are several answers to the question. Among them is a reminder to Filipinos about the value of our fascinating past and why history should not be treated as the domain of historians alone. At the base of an elegant pillar in the parish of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Sta. Mesa Manila, a curious churchgoer will find an interesting marking [...]

RENATO2025-03-31T15:50:09+08:00March 7, 2025|Tags: MainStories|

The Electrician and the Tram

AN Armenian invocation comes to mind, Djamangeen gar oo chagar. Once upon a time, there was and there wasn’t. It’s a fitting notion to chew on when you weigh the story of a large lot along F.R. Hidalgo in Quiapo district, framed on two sides by esteros that are today more sewage than canal, waterways that once witnessed the rise of the country’s first modern power station, La Electricista—The Electrician. [...]

RENATO2025-03-31T15:52:11+08:00March 7, 2025|Tags: MainStories|

Street names and the persistence of memory

Life reveals far greater pleasures when we use our sense of curiosity more often. This is so for travelers and it’s something any Filipino can enjoy when they start asking about the origins of street names. For instance, Magsaysay Boulevard was named after The Guy, Ramon Magsaysay, one of the country’s more popular presidents. [...]

RENATO2026-03-02T16:04:25+08:00March 7, 2025|

Our perfumed history

Chandler Burr dwelled on “the mystery of smell” in his intriguing 2004 book, The Emperor of Scent. “We understand the human sense of vision,” Burr wrote, “intimately down to exactly which vibration of a particle of light caught in the vision receptor in the retina will make us see exactly which color… We know hearing in exquisite detail, can predict with absolute accuracy which air vibration in the cochlea will create what tone. But of smell, we do not know, cannot predict.” [...]

RENATO2025-04-01T14:32:07+08:00March 7, 2025|