Constantino Foundation – Page 8 – Dedicated to a usable history, where lessons from the past are used to shape the future.

Spotlight

A Usable Love by Rosalinda Pineda Ofreneo

(Remarks by Rosalinda Pineda Ofreneo during the opening of the exhibit on “Pasts Revisited,” Yuchengco Museum, 11 June 2026) The writings of Renato and[READ]

Message from the Curator By Ninel Constantino

In design, perhaps the most difficult pursuit is honesty—honesty in the use of line, shape, and color; honesty in the orchestration of balance, harmony,[READ]

National Artist Virgilio Almario Writes on the Constantinos’ Legacy of Activism

Mabuhay! Mula kay Virgilio Almario, Pambansang Alagad ng Sining: AKTIBISMONG NASYONALISTA, na unang lumabas sa pahayagang Filipino Ngayon, sa loob ng kanyang kolum na[READ]

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RENATO & LETIZIA CONSTANTINO: A love supreme

THE lives of writers Renato and Letizia Constantino as husband and wife were so intertwined that they also found a common cause to work together in advancing national freedom, social liberation and[READ]

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Pasts Revisited

Lorena Barros

We remember today Lorena Barros, who was killed in Mauban, Quezon on March 24, 1976 while fighting to bring down the Marcos dictatorship. According to the Bantayog ng mga Bayani, “Medical treatment was promised by her captors if she would cooperate with them, but she said she would rather die for her beliefs. She was shot in the nape. She was 28 years old.” Barros was a granddaughter of a ????????????????????????????????????????. Her mother was part of the HUKBALAHAP guerilla resistance.

The artist Basilio “Billy” Pangilinan reimagined Barros in a particular way. Thanks to the ciphers noted down by the biologist Rio Constantino, who curated the Alas ng Bayan 2.0 exhibit, we know the following:

????????????????: Barros was a member of the UP Writers Club, and the founding chair of MAKIBAKA. She graduated from UP Diliman in 1970.

????????????????????????????????: Barros is wearing a maroon sash reminiscent of the ????????????????????????: worn by UP graduates. Her uniform is also purple, which is a color associated with the feminist movement. [CONGRADS is campus lingo, a combination of ‘congrats’ and ‘graduation’]

????????????????��???? ???????? ????????????????????: The ???????????????????????????????? on the rocks behind Barros spell out “Dangal” and “Husay,” the motto of UP.

????????????????????????????????????????????????: Speaking of rocks, we decided to give Barros powers related to geomancy/earthbending because of the ideals she followed in life: Lorena being of the earth and the people who till it, and also a defender of the motherland as well.

???????????? ???????????????????????? ????????????????: When Billy first brought up the idea of undead Philippine constabulary, Duterte was president. Today, however, the ghouls of the past have literally clawed their way back into power in the form of the Marcos Jr. presidency. If Billy and I had known just what the future had in store for everyone, maybe we would have added an extra ???????????????? or two in the background to further highlight the irony (and urgency) of our times. [A ???????????????? is an undead evil monster in Dungeons and Dragons.]

Art often gives us new perspectives. Did you spot other gems in Pangilinan’s art? What about the other Alas ng Bayan pieces? #PastsRevisited #AlasNgBayan

March 24, 2026|

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FOREST MEANS FOREVER

FOREST MEANS FOREVER: 15 years after the murder of Leonard Co, a people's botanist, colleagues gather at the Institute of Biology, UP Diliman, for a press conference today, November 15, not just to demand justice for Co but also to publicize content from years worth of his botanical documentation.The database features 3970[READ]

Gaya ng kagubatan, nananatiling buhay si Leonard

TINGNAN | Gaya ng kagubatan, nananatiling buhay si LeonardIto ang diwa ng pagtitipon para sa paggunita ng ika-15 taong pagpaslang kay Leonard L. Co, isang botanist at mananaliksik, Nob. 15, sa UP Institute of Biology.Sa pangunguna ng Constantino Foundation, pinasinayaan ngayong araw ang digitized na koleksiyon ng mga retrato ng iba’t ibang[READ]

LOOK: Environmental advocates and scientists, with friends and family of the late botanist Leonard Co, commemorated the scientist’s 15th death anniversary Saturday at the Institute of Biology.

LOOK: Environmental advocates and scientists, with friends and family of the late botanist Leonard Co, commemorated the scientist’s 15th death anniversary Saturday at the Institute of Biology. Co and his two companions Sofronio Cortez and Julius Borromeo were killed 15 years ago by elements of the 19th Infantry Battallion while conducting[READ]

“???????????????? ????????, ???????????????????? ???????????????? ????????????????????????.”

Labing-limang taon na ang lumipas mula nang paslangin si Dr. Leonardo Legaspi Co ng 19th Infantry Battalion ng Armed Forces of the Philippines habang nagsasagawa sila ng kaniyang grupo ng siyentipikong pag-aaral sa kagubatan ng Kananga, Leyte. Kasama sa mga nasawi ay ang empleyado ng Energy Development Corporation na si Sofronio[READ]

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“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.
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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.
“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
"... 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
“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
“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
"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

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Pasts Revisited

Lorena Barros

Events

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Stories

“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!”​

“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.”

“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!”

"... 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."

“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. ❤️"

“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!”