His interest in the heavens and stars started when he was a high-school student at the Philippine Science High School in 1966. Together with his siblings, he would climb to their roof in their house in Malabon to star gaze, using a big telescope. He talked of Orion and Pleaiades constellations, Tatlong Maria and Supot ni Hudas that whet his appetite to study them.

His recent published book Balatik trailblazed the study of the newly coined word “etnoastronomiya.” Balatik is a Visayan word for Orion whom he found out to be a guiding constellation for the indigenous farmers in pre-Hispanic Philippines. He concluded that the present-day civilization can read the ancient past in the heavens, stars and constellations.

His method of teaching History in UP was through storytelling that students always asked him about his activism since the 1970s. Twice detained, this former Physics student at the Ateneo, suffered torture in the hands of the military under Martial Law. He transferred to UP and shifted to history where he continued writing about trade unionism of the Philippine left.

He was like a big brother to me.  It was he who encouraged me to go back to school to finish my college education.

“That’s for the future of your children,” he told me. We share the same interest in history and talked about giving back to the people whatever knowledge is gained from field work and archival research.

He was given the Gabi ng Parangal at the UP Chapel last night. His remains lay in state in Naval Funeral Homes in his hometown in Malabon. Interment was at San Bartolome Parish Cemetery on Thursday.

Indeed, he lived a full and meaningful life.

Padayon, Sir Dante.