Constantino Foundation – Page 4 – Dedicated to a usable history, where lessons from the past are used to shape the future.

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Pagpupugay sa Pamana ni Antonio Kabigting Abad

Lovely opening of the exhibit on the life and works of Antonio Kabigting Abad, on the occasion of his 140th birth anniversary, August 13. Catch[READ]

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU

Musical composition student Hans Gabriel Dela Cruz coined what might be among the best descriptions of a usable past, something that will be understood[READ]

Buwan ng Wika, Buwan ng Himagsikan: Remembering 130 Years of the Katipunan

A HISTORIC MONTH: 𝙱𝚄𝚆𝙰𝙽 𝙽𝙶 𝚆𝙸𝙺𝙰, but also the very month when a forgetful nation should celebrate the 130th anniversary of the Revolution waged[READ]

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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 ng kasaysayan ng Pilipinas at nagtaguyod ng makabayang pananaw dito.

Isinilang siya sa Maynila noong Marso 10, 1919. Habang nag-aaral sa Unibersidad ng Pilipinas, naging patnugot siya ng Philippine Collegian, ang pahayagang pang-estudyante ng unibersidad. Sa pamamagitan nito, kinondena niya ang kolonyal na rehimen ng Estados Unidos at ang mga mapanupil na ugali ni Pangulong Manuel Quezon.

[READ]

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Pasts Revisited

Paanyaya: Pagdiriwang ng Ika‑140 Kaarawan ni Antonio Kabigting Abad

PAANYAYA! Pagdiriwang ng ika-140 kaarawan ni G. Antonio Kabigting Abad at pagbubukas ng eksibisyong inihanda ng manunulat at mananaliksik na si Ricky Celeste Ornopia.

Sa loob ng delubyo ng kasakimang likha ng mga kawatan, sa harap ng magkabilang dagok ng krisis sa klima, at sa gitna ng dagat ng kamangmangan at pagkalimot, napapanahon ang pagdalisay sa mga pamana ni Abad sa bayan.

Pinagmamalaki ng Constantino Foundation na maging bahagi ng inisyatibo ng Mind The Gap, partikular ang paalala ni Ornopia na “tingnan ang puwang” dahil doon masisilayan ang maraming elemento ng kontra-kamalayan na lubhang kailangan ng ating lipunan sa kasalukuyan.

Inaasahan naming na umpisa lamang ito sa mahabang serye ng pagbubungkal sa natabunang nakaraan – hindi lamang pagbabalik-tanaw – at sa okasyon ng ika-13 ng Agosto, inaanyayahan naming ang lahat na dumalo sa lektura ni Ornopia at makilala muli si Antonio Kabigting Abad, ang intelektwal na, sa pamamagitan ng lapis, tinta, at makinilya – ang kanyang napusuang martilyo, asero’y patalim – ay higit na nakatulong sa paghuhulma ng lipunan at panitikang Filipino.

Nagpapasalamat kami sa College of Arts and Letters Library at Knights of Rizal-Blumentritt Chapter na kasama namin sa pagtangkilik at paggunita sa alaala ni Abad, sa pangunguna ni Ricky Celeste Ornopia at ng Mind The Gap.

#PastsRevisited #PanitikangFilipino #AntonioKabigtingAbad

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August 10, 2026|

Events

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Stories

Towards a Language of Estuaries: Cosmic Roots and Resilient Resistance

This event is tomorrow, a provocation we hope that is fit for the 25th year of such a generous, loving, fierce, and cerebral national writers workshop, one that covers writing in several languages, in poetry, essay, short story, and so on and on and on, organized by the University of St. La[READ]

Friends across oceans? Yes!

Friends across oceans? Yes! What a lovely time spent with Lito and AA Valerio, and their inquisitive son, Teo. They dropped by the Constantino Foundation compound in late April. They were spending a few weeks in the Philippines on holiday, much of it spent visiting family in Davao. But they were also[READ]

Coming home to where the writing began.

Coming home to where the writing began. IYAS La Salle National Writers Workshop invites all alumni (Batches 2000–2025) to our Silver Anniversary Homecoming on May 14–16, 2026 at the University of St. La Salle, Bacolod. Be part of 25 years of IYAS stories—reconnect, celebrate, and come home. Register here: https://forms.gle/32AVw3ZP4PzxbCM8 #IYASHomecoming #IYAS2026[READ]

Congratulations to the IYAS 2026 Fellows!

Fellows! Filipino writers are central to the task of nation-building and protecting the nation, and IYAS stands out for its role in supporting our people’s forest of writers thrive, so that they may question, shape, reimagine, inspire, and provoke change among our people. Mabuhay, IYAS 2026 Fellows, and congratulations to the wise[READ]

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“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.
“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
"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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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.
“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
"... 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
“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

Spotlight

The Foundation

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Spotlight

The Foundation

Our Partners

Teacher Support

Pasts Revisited

Paanyaya: Pagdiriwang ng Ika‑140 Kaarawan ni Antonio Kabigting Abad

Events

Videos

Stories

"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. ❤️"

“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.”

“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!”

“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!”