The current harvest of books is particularly abundant, and includes a special hardbound edition of Renato Constantino’s “A Past Revisited” as well as Atom Araullo’s “A View from the Ground,” Benjamin Pimentel’s “UG: The Life and Struggle of Edgar Jopson,” and Roderick Toledo’s “The Ruminant Ant & Other Essays.”

“A Past Revisited” was first published in 1975—a feat at the time for two reasons. First, it came three years into the martial law era and, second, in those early days when the effects of climate change had yet to be fully felt worldwide, Renato Constantino was already advocating for a rapid transition to renewable energy. He wrote: “The acceleration of efforts towards developing alternative sources of energy is another step in the right direction. The sun, the wind, the heat from the earth and the movement of water may all be harnessed…with safe methods at relatively low cost.”

Fifty years later, this special edition that acknowledges the collaboration of Constantino’s spouse, Letizia R. Constantino, presents eye-openers to Filipinos, both those grown amnesiac on Philippine history and those eager to learn about the past and find the context for the current distressing issues of corruption, historical revisionism, high unemployment, and more. 

As Renato Constantino wrote, “history must deal with the past with a view to explaining the present.”

The book, now on its 23^rd printing, was launched at Rosh Hotel in Malate, Manila, and at Museo El Deposito in San Juan City in August, and on Sept. 5 at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) in Santa Mesa, Manila. Other launches are being planned in the cities of Bacolod, Iloilo and Tacloban.

“Our problems today require revisiting our history, [which] is intersectional and a narrative of the inarticulate,” Renato Redentor “Red” Constantino said at the launch in PUP. Red is a grandson of the authors and the managing director of the publisher, the Constantino Foundation.

Significantly, at the Q&A session, and in response to a repeated question on how the “masses” can learn quickly from the book, Red said: “Freeing one’s self is difficult if you don’t read.”

He writes in his introduction to the special edition that, except for changes to the em dashes, hyphenation, abbreviation and word spacing, the book’s content and cover design by his father, Renato “RC” Constantino Jr., remain the same.

He traces the intersectionality of fossil-fuel-driven US imperialism, historical development, and climate change, and highlights their links to America’s purchase of the Philippines and its other colonies from Spain. Case in point: Subic in Zambales, he writes, was first a coaling station of the US Navy, and the military-and-prison complex in Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay was a US military coaling depot.

“Both moves were motivated by the need to secure spaces for fossil fuels, preceding wars in the Middle East to secure petroleum resources [from] the 1970s…to the 1990s,” Red writes.

The special edition of “A Past Revisited” is available at Popular Bookstore on Tomas  Morato Extension in Quezon City. 

And more

Broadcast journalist Atom Araullo’s first book, “A View from the Ground,” is a collection of narratives that highlight the lives of Filipinos on the margins of society, accompanied by photographs taken by the author.

It was published by UP Press and will be officially launched on Sept 14, 2 p.m., at the ongoing Manila International Book Fair (main stage, second floor, SMX Convention Center). Copies will be available through Shopee and Lazada. 

The third edition of journalist Benjamin Pimentel’s “UG: The Life and Struggle of Edgar Jopson,” published by Anvil, was launched on Sept. 10 at the Manila International Book Fair. 

At the launch, Pimentel said the timing of his book’s latest edition is just right, with the ongoing sea change in the United States and its policies, as well as issues that both Filipinos here and Filipino residents of America are now finding relevant.

He said “UG” is in stark contrast to what Elon Musk, the former senior adviser to US President Donald Trump, believes in—that the world’s problem is that people care too much about the minorities, those with different gender orientations, and the marginalized, and that people should instead focus on gaining wealth and power.

“Edjop’s journey is the exact opposite of that. It’s about empathy, which is something you would expect from the youth—the hope of the mother country,” he said.

According to Pimentel “UG” is also about the difficulties of being part of change. He cited how the activist Jopson joined the underground movement at the worst possible time because “people were hiding and scared after the declaration of martial law.” He recalled how Jopson was criticized by the radicals but eventually ended up joining and leading them: “He was able to navigate differences and go beyond the insults he received.”

Pimentel admitted to never meeting Jopson and to imagining him from the accounts of “the many people I had interviewed about him.” A quiet man was how he described his subject. (The dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. contemptuously described Jopson as a “grocer’s son.”)

He said past and present parallelisms, including social class/wealth differences, poverty and corruption, and young people wanting to bring about change, make Jopson’s story a good lesson on how to go about engaging directly with people and not merely through social media.

The book was first published in 2006 and 2019. It is the basis for an upcoming film on Jopson—something that pleases Pimentel because Jopson’s story can now be told in another form. “Edjop: The Movie” was the impetus for the publication of this third edition, which features a new cover, updated content, and behind-the scenes photos from the film.  

“The Ruminant Ant & Other Essays” by Roderick Toledo was written during the years 2016-2025 and focuses on how Filipinos can make sense of today’s raging issues and find strength in balance and values-based action. It is the second collection of essays by Toledo, who writes regularly for CoverStory and who manages and implements communication and advocacy projects for development agencies and private firms.

Toledo discusses many current concerns in his book, but there is a clear introspective drift that CoverStory executive editor Rosario A. Garcellano takes note of in her foreword titled “In Constant Inner Conversation.” Toledo tackles stuff from the highly conceptual to the deeply personal, in the course of which he formulates a degree of self-understanding that he hopes would extend to the reader’s general understanding of society.  

“The Ruminant Ant and Other Essays” will be off the press late this month. Copies will be available on demand. Email [email protected] or [email protected] for details on delivery costs.

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