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 looking for a copy of the newly released 50th anniversary edition of The Philippines: A Past Revisited (APR). We both laughed at the effort by a few sellers to pass off ridiculously priced versions – used frayed copies of APR selling at P1,500-1,800, which people were actually buying, when they could have purchased the latest new hardbound edition at P699, and the newly released softbound version, the 24th printing with a new introduction, at P599.

We exchanged a lot of stories. Romance, university days, friendships, social struggles and political debacles. It was a conversation that will hopefully be sustained for a long while.

We met at the ancestral home of Renato Constantino and Letizia Roxas Constantino on Panay Avenue, a compound where the foundation also holds office. They’ve been based in Abu Dhabi for a long time but the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran disrupted their lives just as it wrought havoc on much of the world. Everything was put on pause while everyone not connected with or cheering on the imperial war machine hoped for a quick end to the hostilities and suffering. But they are now safely back in UAE.

The war on Iran is such a stupid, short-sighted, and naked act of aggression by a superpower in rapid decline and its client, Israel, which at times performs the role of vassal and sometimes the overseer of U.S. foreign policy in West Asia, which most today know as the Middle East.

They brought us chocolates from Davao – bars, nibs, and tablets – and they bought a copy of APR, and they brought back The Poverty of Memory, The Essential Tañada, The Recto Reader, and The Constantino Sampler.

There are no goodbyes when it comes to friends. Till we meet again, stay safe and happy and keep spreading historical thinking.

Mabuhay kayo, Lito, AA, at Teo!