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Jiggy Manicad views Luna’s Spoliarium at the National Museum in Netflix’s I Love Filipino.
I had no plans for the June 12 holiday. I stayed home, took it slow, and binged on I Love Filipino, a five-part documentary now streaming on Netflix. Produced by Marnie Manicad and co-written and hosted by husband, broadcast journalist Jiggy Manicad, the series explores Filipino identity through food, music, art, and architecture.
Each episode highlights how traditions endure through the ways we cook, sing, speak, build, and pass things on.
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Two episodes stood out. Episode 3, Juan with Art, opens with Juan Luna’s Spoliarium and features contemporary Filipino artists who broke through internationally: Ronald Ventura, whose hyperrealist paintings blend folklore with pop culture; Michael Cacnio, whose brass sculptures depict scenes from daily life; Leinil Yu, who illustrates for Marvel titles like X-Men and Avengers; and Elmer Padilla, who crafts action figures from discarded flip-flops.
The final episode, Bahay Kubo, reexamines the traditional hut as a continuing influence on Filipino architecture. It remains a relevant model for designing homes attuned to climate, airflow, light, and native materials.
This ethos is reflected in the work of National Artists Leandro Locsin and Francisco Mañosa. Locsin’s legacy includes the Cultural Center of the Philippines and the Philippine International Convention Center. Mañosa brought native forms and materials to projects such as Amanpulo, the Coconut Palace, and Pearl Farm. That influence continues in Royal Pineda’s designs for the Mactan-Cebu and Clark airports and the SEA Games Stadium in New Clark City.
On June 12, the country marked 127 years of independence. International Container Terminal Services, Inc., where I have worked for over two decades, also celebrated its 37th year. Personally, the date held layered meaning: our national struggle against foreign powers and the expansion of a Filipino company as a global enterprise.
It also brought back memories of the 1998 Philippine Centennial.
In 1997, Jess Matubis invited me to join the Centennial Information Center Media Bureau, a project-based team of the Philippine Centennial Commission then chaired by former Vice President Doy Laurel. Shortly, the comms team of the Philippine Centennial Exposition joined us: historian Dulce Festin-Baybay, my journalism classmate at the University of Santo Tomas and now Maynilad spokesperson Jennifer Rufo, and former Bulletin reporter now educator Joel Atencio. As programs ramped up ahead of the June 12 celebrations, we brought in more of our UST schoolmates to volunteer and support media operations.
That was also an election year. Politics often pushed the Centennial out of the headlines. Watching I Love Filipino brought those days back, specifically the challenges of keeping cultural stories in view. But things have changed. There’s now a greater sense of identity and a deeper connection to heritage—seeds planted by the Philippine Centennial 27 years ago.
The series shows how Pinoy-ness is rooted in what we preserve, create, and share. With I Love Filipino now available on a global platform, these stories extend beyond our shores, bringing Filipino culture to the world.
That is what June 12 meant to me this year.
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