Spotlight
Moving words from the Hunters-ROTC Historical Society
Moving words from the Hunters-ROTC Historical Society, shared today at the launch of the 50th anniversary edition of A Past Revisited. Enjoy, share, act![READ]
Now Available: 50th Anniversary Edition of The Philippines: A Past Revisited
Here's the new book! It can be purchased at Popular Bookstore by August 26, as well as at the book launch in Rosh Hotel[READ]
Book launch alert!
There's a new introduction and new layout, but it's still the same hard-hitting narrative of our history by the champions of a usable past,[READ]
Spotlight
Save the date! A convocation in honor of Renato Constantino and current global and national issues blazing in the news today
What is behind the country’s persistent underdevelopment and what explains the acceleration of industrialization among our neighbors? What are the links closely binding decolonization and decarbonization and how do these shape our people’s aspiration to industrialize today? What is the relevance of Philippine history with regard to fossil economy-triggered conflicts in West Asia, territorial disputes in contested international waters, and the worsening climate crisis? What is the relevance today of the lives lived by Renato Constantino and Letizia Roxas Constantino and why did they dedicate their lives to advance the cause of nationalism and partisan scholarship in the Philippines?
[READ]
Pasts Revisited
Pedro Abad Santos
“The workers must rely on nobody but themselves!” said Pedro Abad Santos, born 31 January 1876 in San Fernando, Pampanga. We #RememberBetter thanks to Lost Graves, Found Lives, A History and Memoir by Agapito Labalan del Rosario and Rosario Cruz-Lucero. #TheContinuingPast
Stories
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"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 -
“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 -
“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 -
"... 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 -
“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 -
“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 -
“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. -
“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 -
“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 -
“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. -
“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















