Constantino Foundation – Page 2 – Dedicated to a usable history, where lessons from the past are used to shape the future.

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IKA-27 ANIBERSARYO NG PAGPANAW NI RENATO CONSTANTINO

Noong Setyembre 15, 1999, pumanaw ang kilalang historyador na si Renato Constantino sa edad na 80. Kabilang siya sa mga humamon sa umiiral na pananaw[READ]

Let’s Play DIKTADOR: An Immersive Role-Playing Card Game!

This September 19, the Constantino Foundation joins Renacimiento Manila and Project Gunita for DIKTADOR!, an immersive role-playing card game that brings participants into the[READ]

BYE-BAYIN” na nga ba o “BAYBAY-IN

𝐇𝐔𝐌𝐀𝐇𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐋 𝐍𝐀 𝐁𝐔𝐖𝐀𝐍 𝐍𝐆 𝐖𝐈𝐊𝐀 𝐀𝐓 𝐊𝐀𝐒𝐀𝐘𝐒𝐀𝐘𝐀𝐍 𝐒𝐀 𝐋𝐀𝐇𝐀𝐓!!! 𝙃𝘼𝙉𝘿𝘼 𝙉𝘼 𝘽𝘼 𝘼𝙉𝙂 𝙇𝘼𝙃𝘼𝙏?! Sa darating na 𝟱 𝗦𝗲𝘁𝘆𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗿𝗲 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 ay tuloy na tuloy[READ]

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To Remember Is to Resist: Playing Diktador at Linangan Gallery

At the moment, wild laughter! Participants play the Diktador card game at the Linangan Gallery of the Constantino Foundation, a loud, raucous event full of reflection and memory, organized by the lovely people of Renacimiento Manila and Project Gunita, esteemed and, during fun times, unhinged partners – ang saya! We love the vibe… Tatak RM, Tatak PG. [READ]

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Pasts Revisited

RC Constantino

RC Constantino would have turned 82 today, 15 September 2026. He was the president of the Constantino Foundation from 2016 till his untimely passing in 2024. He is missed deeply.

Among his many contributions to activism, RC was known for his role in 1994 when he defied the Ramos administration by leading the watershed Asia-Pacific Conference on East Timor or APCET. Bowing to the wishes of the Indonesian government, Ramos tried to ban the international meeting, but RC and his many colleagues refused to be coerced. Together with Timor Leste and Indonesian activists, RC led Philippine and overseas NGOs, and dignitaries such as Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mairead Maguire and France’s First Lady Danielle Mitterand to ensure APCET would push through. Today, Timor Leste is an independent nation and a proud member of ASEAN.

RC embraced nationalism as defined by the historically specific, anti-colonial experience of the Philippines: nation as bayan, a people – not just the formality of a country with borders – struggling to be free and obliged to support other struggling peoples fighting for their freedom. It is the reason why the foundation has always supported efforts to free Palestine.

In The Continuing Past, RC’s parents, Letizia Roxas Constantino and Renato Constantino, who passed away on 15 September 1999, wrote: “Contemporary nationalism should be part of a larger internationalism, [a] wider struggle against global control by state and corporate forces that seek the continuation of a system which consigns people to a life of poverty, ignorance, and underdevelopment.”

#MakaBayan #PastsRevisited

September 15, 2026|

Events

Videos

Stories

Bakit wala pa ang Pilipinas sa world cup? Isang Tanong sa Kolonyal na Isipan

(Alay sa mapanuring diwa ng mga makabayang historyador na sina Renato at Letizia Constantino. Ang eksibit tungkol sa kanilang buhay at kaisipan sa Yuchengco Museum ay bukas hanggang Hulyo 31.) May mga pangarap na isinilang upang lumipad, Ngunit itinurong gumapang sa sariling bakuran. Kaya’t muli nating itanong— Bakit wala pa ang[READ]

Renacimiento Manila (RM) at the Linangan Gallery of the Constantino Foundation

Yesterday, Renacimiento Manila (RM) held their general assembly at the Linangan Gallery of the Constantino Foundation. RM is a heritage advocacy group comprised of young Filipinos determined to protect our nation's legacy, propagate awareness of the colorful past in our natural and built urban environment, and promote historical thinking. They conduct some[READ]

Philippine Native Trees 404: Rooted & Rising has been featured in the Philippine STAR Lifestyle section dated June 1, 2026.

Distinguished poet and SEAWrite awardee Alfred A. Yuson (Krip) writes about the book in his column "Marvelous Life Forms" — and we couldn't be more grateful for his beautiful words about this labor of love. Nearly 1,000 pages. 445 tree features. Eight years in the making. This book is a tribute[READ]

Rommel Banlaoi on Constantino’s Urgent Diagnosis of the Filipino Condition

Written over six decades ago, Renato Constantino’s The Miseducation of the Filipino remains one of the most urgent diagnoses of the Philippine condition. This piece by Prof. Rommel Banlaoi revisits its core arguments — colonial mentality, elite capture, and the failure of education as a tool of genuine national formation — and[READ]

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"... A Past Revisited sparked a different kind of revolution, one that urged Filipinos to view history through our own eyes and experiences. Thank you very much to our dear friend, ABS-CBN’s Karmina Constantino, a resident of San Juan, for inviting me to be part of this historic occasion."

Mayor Francis Zamora
San Juan City Governor , On his speech at APR 50th anniversary edition launch at NHCP Museo El Deposito
2025 August 29
“Yes, third time [sila/Inang Laya] pumunta at kumanta sa rally sa Dasmarinas town plaza, sa parish church sa our Lady of Perpetual Help sa Dasmariñas Bagong Bayan and sa martsa rali ng mga maralitang lunsod from Dasmariñas to Bacoor na hinarang sumama at di sya [Karina Constantino-David] umalis hanggang kinabukasan.”

Ian Yaun
March 19, 2024
“Frequented the area in the early ’80s because of Popular Bookstore (small door, beside the gate of Mapua High School), the only one that carried engineering books required for our course. It was still Martial Law… One buys … dangerous reading materials afraid of the Secret Marshals who were then infamous for salvaging (tokhang in the time of tatay digong) petty criminals and activists. Across Mapua High then was a parking lot of mini buses – now the Manila Grand Opera.”

Melvin Purzuelo
Iloilo environmentalist, commenting on the foundation’s history article in BusinessMirror,
“Cycling through the fabled history of an opera house, now a hotel,” June 2024.
"Thank you for having us ... We truly enjoyed ourselves. The exhibit was very inspiring, beautifully presented and so insightful. We were all so impressed. Hope we can use some of the material in our Women’s Museum. ❤️"

Mayor Joy Belmonte
Quezon City Governor, On her visit at Letizia: A Life in Letters Exhibit
2025 July 30
“One of the most towering texts of nationalist historiography — co-authored by Letizia Constantino, whose voice carried the struggle for true independence into classrooms and beyond.”

Michael “Xiao” Chua
Historian , On his column at The Manila Times
“Letizia Constantino: Nationalist historian, wife and mother” 2025 June 17
“A Past Revisited was both a revelation and a challenge. It made us see the familiar narratives of Philippine history in new and unsettling ways. It invited us to ask deeper questions—about power, about colonial legacies, about the struggles and aspirations of our people. And it also gave us a sense of responsibility: to carry history forward not just as memory, but as a guide for action and transformation.”

Dr. Chas M. Navarro
Commissioner, National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP)
On his remarks at the launch of the 50th Anniversary Special Edition of The Philippines: A Past Revisited
2025 Aug 29
“Thank you very much, Constantino Foundation! It was a lovely afternoon spent learning about history, poetry, art, climate change, street names, the bicycles in revolution, kickass heroines, and much more! Renato Redentor Constantino’s talk and Renato Senior’s book A Past Revisited really got under my skin. Maraming salamat!”

Gege Cruz Sugue
Flips Flipping Books book club, 12 August 2024
“Taos pusong pagpapasalamat ng angkang Orosa for your inclusion of our Beloved Maria Y. Orosa in this PUP mural. Renato Redentor Constantino, we are ever grateful for this honor and recognition. Our forebears knew each other. Mine spoke highly of the Constantinos!”

Evelyn Orosa del Rosario Garcia
Great grand niece of Maria Y. Orosa and author of National Book Award winner
Appetite for Freedom: The Recipes of Maria Y. Orosa, with Essays on Her Life and Work.
“My first brush with Renato Constantino was through Mr. Herman Rochester, our 4th year high school adviser, who lent me his Miseducation of the Filipino. From then on I was hooked. In college, I encountered Parents and Activists, which helped me understand my parents’ objections to my activism, then his books A Past Revisited and A Continuing Past which made me learn history in a way that I was never taught in my elementary and high school years. His and his wife Letizia’s many articles, pamphlets, books and publications were guiding lights that stirred up the makabayan and palaban in me. Theirs was a writing that was nakakapagmulat at nakakataas ng pag-unawa.”

Teddy Casiño
Former Bayan Muna Representative, Facebook post
11 June 2026
“We have been so wonderfully blessed in the past week by the presence of tremendously inspiring people, one of them, the one who likes to “shake trees”, is Sir Renato Redentor Constantino who moved the entire plenary to feel, think, and act… people couldn’t help but share and talk about the presentation. I told Sir Red that by the second day of the event, people realized there were ‘deeper commitments than professionalism.’”

Floraime Pantaleta
Executive Director, Ateneo Zamboanga-Mindanao Institute
“Renato and Letty kept the fire burning for country and people, fueled by their abiding love for each other and the cause they both pursued with single-minded devotion. In this sense, Renato and Letty may well be considered among the principal characters in one long epic love poem about the birthing of a free and caring society, still unfinished to this day.”

Dr. Rosalinda Pineda-Ofreneo
biographer, at the Pasts Revisited exhibit opening, Yuchengco Museum,
11 June 2026
“Good read. At aliw. Ito ang kahapon na masarap balikan!”

Cherylle Lara Raguini
Subic civic leader, commenting on the foundation essay in ABS-CBN,
“Street names and the persistence of memory,” June 2024
“Mabuhay ka RC. Patuloy namin ikaw inaalala at ipinagdadasal sa lakbay mo ngayon. We will continue our conversations with family, even while you have left us. You will forever live in our hearts and we celebrate your life fully!”

Loretta Ann Rosales
Former member, House of Representatives
and former chair of the Commission on Human Rights
“At a low point in my life, I received a note from Letizia Constantino, unsolicited advice that encouraged me to keep writing. I never got to thank her personally for that pat on the back; this column is belated gratitude.”

Ambeth R. Ocampo
Historian, An excerpt from his column in Philippine Daily Inquirer
"Letizia Roxas Constantino, historian", 2025 June 06

Spotlight

The Foundation

Our Partners

Teacher Support

Spotlight

The Foundation

Our Partners

Teacher Support

Pasts Revisited

RC Constantino

Events

Videos

Stories

"... A Past Revisited sparked a different kind of revolution, one that urged Filipinos to view history through our own eyes and experiences. Thank you very much to our dear friend, ABS-CBN’s Karmina Constantino, a resident of San Juan, for inviting me to be part of this historic occasion."

"Thank you for having us ... We truly enjoyed ourselves. The exhibit was very inspiring, beautifully presented and so insightful. We were all so impressed. Hope we can use some of the material in our Women’s Museum. ❤️"

“One of the most towering texts of nationalist historiography — co-authored by Letizia Constantino, whose voice carried the struggle for true independence into classrooms and beyond.”

“Taos pusong pagpapasalamat ng angkang Orosa for your inclusion of our Beloved Maria Y. Orosa in this PUP mural. Renato Redentor Constantino, we are ever grateful for this honor and recognition. Our forebears knew each other. Mine spoke highly of the Constantinos!”​

“Good read. At aliw. Ito ang kahapon na masarap balikan!”

“Mabuhay ka RC. Patuloy namin ikaw inaalala at ipinagdadasal sa lakbay mo ngayon. We will continue our conversations with family, even while you have left us. You will forever live in our hearts and we celebrate your life fully!”

“At a low point in my life, I received a note from Letizia Constantino, unsolicited advice that encouraged me to keep writing. I never got to thank her personally for that pat on the back; this column is belated gratitude.”

“Taos pusong pagpapasalamat ng angkang Orosa for your inclusion of our Beloved Maria Y. Orosa in this PUP mural. Renato Redentor Constantino, we are ever grateful for this honor and recognition. Our forebears knew each other. Mine spoke highly of the Constantinos!”