Constantino Foundation – Page 32 – Dedicated to a usable history, where lessons from the past are used to shape the future.

Spotlight

Alas Ng Bayan 2, opisyal nang inilunsad sa PUP Mabini Campus

Matagumpay na binuksan sa PUP Mabini Campus ang Alas ng Bayan 2.0 exhibit na naglalayong itampok at pagnilayan ang unbroken line of Filipina heroism[READ]

Alas ng Bayan 2.0 Opens Tomorrow at PUP Sta. Mesa Campus

The Constantino Foundation, in partnership with the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (Official), PUP Department of History PUP Samahan ng mga Mag-aaral ng Kasaysayan ,[READ]

Fidel Nemenzo on Leonard Co

Here’s an antidote to the buffoonery we encounter in the news today, no thanks to politicians in the national spotlight.[READ]

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Spotlight

‘Pasts Revisited’ exhibit extended until July 31

Visitors have more time to experience a unique intersection of history, art, and intellectual resistance, as the Constantino Foundation and Yuchengco Museum have officially extended the run of Pasts Revisited: An Exhibit on a Usable History and the Romance of Renato Constantino and Letizia Roxas Constantino until July 31, 2026.

Currently housed at the RCBC Plaza in Makati City, the exhibition highlights the celebrated husband-and-wife historian duo whose writings profoundly reshaped Filipino identity.

Due to popular demand and the vast nature of[READ]

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Pasts Revisited

Gloria Capitan

Murdered on this day, 1 July 2016, Gloria Capitan, true #ClimateHero and first recorded extra-judicial killing under the Duterte regime. Capitan led the fight against a proposed coal power project in Bataan. She was a grandmother who will not be forgotten by a grateful nation.

The #ConstantinoFoundation thanks the artist Maudine Hermione B. Yap for sharing her piece The Hanged Woman, part of a collection produced under the visual communications class of Prof. Mitzi Reyes, former dean of the U.P. College of Fine Arts, all rendered in February 2020 in reflection of the #AlasNgBayan exhibit by #350Pilipinas volunteer Johnny Guarin.

#APastRevisited

July 1, 2025|

Events

Videos

Stories

Manila vanilla

On June 15, designated as World Wind Day, another history tour on bicycles will pedal around 15 kilometers of slow storytelling around key parts of Manila. One of its stops: Rodel’s Pasalubong Place in Don Quixote St. for refreshments, snacks, and a bit of talk about food, climate, and history. [...]

Cycling through the fabled history of an opera house, now a hotel

ON the corner of Rizal Avenue and Doroteo Jose stands the Manila Grand Opera Hotel, a fabulist if the establishment were a person.This is about the history of a place that has gone through many costume changes, a story bursting with intersectionality, with a past so implausible it should be celebrated annually by poets and climate activists alike. [...]

Heritage bicycle ride visits site of first PH power plant, goes inside Old Bilibid

Fair climate policy advocates joined forces again with history buffs as they pedaled in celebration of largely unheralded landmarks in Manila. Dubbed #SintangLakbay in commemoration of the 120th founding anniversary of the country’s premier Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), [...]

PUP unveils mural hailing Filipino ‘science revolutionaries’

The Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) unveiled on Monday a gigantic campus mural, showing Filipino scientists Leonard Co, Maria Y. Orosa, and Eduardo Quisumbing for their contributions in the country's scientific reputation. The mural, titled "Mga Rebolusyonaryo," gave the three figures with their own descriptive, naming Co as "Bayani Ko," Orosa as "Tagapagligtas," and Quisumbing as "Muhon ng Bayan." [...]

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“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
“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 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
“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
“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.
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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.
"... 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

Spotlight

The Foundation

Our Partners

Teacher Support

Spotlight

The Foundation

Our Partners

Teacher Support

Pasts Revisited

Gloria Capitan

Events

Videos

Stories

“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.”

"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. ❤️"

“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!”

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

“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!”​

"... 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."

“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!”