Alas ng Bayan

A collaborative project organized by the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC), the Constantino Foundation, and 350.org Pilipinas, to raise awareness about the intersections between women, history, memory, climate change, and citizenship.

The project seeks to introduce and inject history and feminism as fundamental elements in the way young people respond to the worsening state of national forgetting and the climate crisis. The Alas ng Bayan exhibit intends to mobilize sectors not normally active in the climate debate by offering new notions of citizenship and nationalism responsive to the multiple emergencies we face today. Viewers of the paintings and those who listen to the lectures that accompany the exhibit will not fail to sense parallels between the lives of the women depicted and current topics under intense public debate, such as violence against women, LGBTQ+ rights, extrajudicial killings, global warming, and national sovereignty.

The Alas ng Bayan exhibit is composed of five paintings depicting individually the heroes Gregoria “Oriang” de Jesus, Apolonia Catra, Remedios “Kumander Liwayway” Gomez-Paraiso, Lorena Barros, and Gloria Capitan. The dimension of each painting is 17 x 24 inches.

Project Timeline

  • November 2019 – March 2020 – The project was first launched during Heroes Month, November 2019, and ended the last day of March 2020, which marked the month when International Women’s Day is celebrated (every 08 March).

  • November 23, 2019 – One-day opening launch at the Constantino Foundation’s Linangan Gallery, after which the paintings moved to participating universities and institutions.

  • April 9, 2020 – The Alas ng Bayan paintings returned to the Linangan Gallery to mark the centennial birth anniversary of writer and historian Letizia Roxas Constantino.

  • October 16, 2025 – Launch of Alas ng Bayan 2.0 – Revealing the Superpowered at the Tandang Sora Museum, in partnership with the Quezon City Department of Tourism. This second iteration reimagined the heroines through the lens of comics (komiks, manga, manhwa), connecting their struggles to contemporary audiences.

  • January 2026 – Alas ng Bayan 2.0 is exhibited at the PUP Sta. Mesa Campus in partnership with the PUP Department of History, running until January 17, 2026.

  • 2026 (Upcoming)-  Plans are underway to bring the exhibit to De La Salle University (DLSU) and an NHCP museum, continuing its mission of engaging new audiences with the stories of Filipina heroines.