When the scholar Bryan Balco visited the #PastsRevisited exhibit, his sense of curiosity made him pause and wonder who the person was between Letizia and Renato, and he gave us a poke. We posed the matter in one of the working dinners of the foundation, and we all had a hearty laugh as we parsed the expressions and physical attributes, which proved humorously vexing. Eventually we arrived at a conclusion after looking at some diaries. Bryan was correct: laughing with Letizia and Renato in pic 4 is Carlos Romulo (as well as pic 1 and 2) while clockwise, from the top left is Sen. Recto in image 2, 5, and 6. (Instead of a photo with Don Claro, whose works Renato had written about extensively, we replaced the original pic with a just as lovely image showing Renato conferring with dear friends Justice Claudio Teehankee, Carmen Guerrero Nakpil, and Justice JBL Reyes.)

Weaving narratives about our nation’s past is often collaborative in nature. Sometimes it’s intentional, other times it’s unplanned. And when different views are shared openly, the public often gains more, because historical accounts are updated, mistakes are addressed, and perspectives are sharpened.

Maybe the better questions to pose are these: Recto and Romulo saw the need for an independent foreign policy in vastly different ways. Where do you think they differed and why? What do we need now? Your answer has implications to challenges we’re facing today.