Donny Pangilinan’s career is only a part of his life’s work.
It’s the calm before the storm. Donny Pangilinan is back in his family’s home in Laguna for the last weekend of his three-month holiday before he jumps back to lock-in tapings and back-to-back events for his latest project, How to Spot a Red Flag.
On any other day, he would be out off-roading and camping under the stars at night with his friends. He’d be traveling, or diving with his younger sister Solana, or starting his days surfing. Heck, he’d rather be outside golfing. “I like being away from everything, where I can not think about so many things,” he says. “For anything that requires a lot of thinking and emotion, I recharge by being less in my head.”
But today, with dark clouds and rumbling thunder hanging over South Luzon, he’s stuck in his study, thinking about what the next five years of his career will look like. “There’s no specific plan,” he blurts out, then pauses to mull it over again. “When I first entered [entertainment], I wanted to do everything [even if] I literally had no idea what I wanted to do but I know why I do what I do.”
Figuring it out happened in phases. Pangilinan has always been led by his curiosity. He’s thought of taking a gap year and then starting on some internships like his sisters, Hannah and Ella. But the fulfillment of working as a team on set for his Koko Krunch commercial with his mother Maricel Laxa in 2016 never left him. It was somewhat unexpected; growing up allowed only one hour of Disney Channel a day and he was the token introvert in his circles. When he became a VJ for the music channel Myx, where he shared his passion for music, it came naturally to him. Then Star Magic, ABS-CBN’s talent management group, recognized his potential for teen romance films.
It wasn’t until November 2019 that things changed for him. The country was on the brink of a lockdown when He’s Into Her catapulted him and co-star Belle Mariano, collectively teamed up as DonBelle, as the stars of their generation. The series of Wattpad origins has since spawned a second season, a documentary, online concerts, a movie cut, and sold-out US shows. When promotions in 2022 wrapped up, they joined the Leni-Kiko campaign for his uncle, vice president candidate Kiko Pangilinan. There, the younger Pangilinan broke the outdated stereotype of moreno bad boys in the mainstream. During the campaign, Pangilinan demonstrated eloquence, intelligence, and social awareness.
He’s been able to apply his values in his work over the last two years. He has a list of questions he refers to. “Will it benefit those who are working on it? Will the audience be able to take something out of it? What value are we going to bring to the table?” The we in question is Mariano, who he’s proud to say is on the same page. “Things get repetitive, and we get too familiar with a character or the way we act. We always wanna change it up a bit.”
His next project Can’t Buy Me Love (2023) proved even bigger and life-changing. The show aired not only on TV but also streaming worldwide on Netflix, constantly ranking in the Top 10, and was at one point the most-watched series on the platform. It was 148 episodes taking up 11 months of his life, taping and living in Binondo for the entire locked-in period. “It came to a point where I would go out and someone would call out to me ‘Bingo, mag-basketball na tayo!’,” he recalls, referring to the name of his character in the show.
Pangilinan couldn’t be more different from Bingo. He had to nail the vernacular with the help of co-stars Ketchup Eusebio and Anthony Jennings. He had to learn things for the first time like driving the kuliglig, a manual farm tractor improvised for city use. Even after the series, he vividly remembers calling out to his mom, “Chicha na tayo.” (“Let’s grub.”) Bingo has changed him in ways he’ll always be grateful for: “I’ve since become more in touch with those emotions since then.”
“Being part of change in general will always be something that I look for and be hungry for when
I do anything.”
For all its trending comedic moments, Can’t Buy Me Love also explored heavy themes like murder and betrayal. After the project, he and Mariano knew they wanted something lighter. When How to Spot a Red Flag was pitched to them, it was “a completely different story, and we had a conversation that was so similar to something we’ve already done,” shares Pangilinan. “We wanted to do something we wanna watch and have a different experience.”
Being more collaborative with his projects has him lining up the next steps of his career. “I really fell in love with creating a story and content,” he says. Right now his ventures outside show business include a gas station (he recently gave out free gas to celebrate its anniversary) and expanding to more branches. He’s also developing real estate properties for commercial and residential use and integrating his content production studio with his sister Hannah somewhere in there.
He also has several advocacies. He’s all about spreading awareness of human trafficking with Call to Rescue with his father, media practitioner Anthony Pangilinan. He hangs out with the juvenile delinquents in Bahay Pag-asa House in Dasmariñas and Davao and helps them build a better future.
“One big thing I’ve learned is to not have my world revolve around showbiz and showbiz alone. It’s gonna eat you up,” Pangilinan says. “There are so many voices in the industry and you just have to know which voices to listen to and who in your circle will tell you the truth for what it is.”
He will always go back to the words of his mentor, Pastor James Aiton of Favor Church: “You have to know where your security lies. Is it in the voice of the people around you? Or is it in the voice of God?”
For Pangilinan, his family comes first. He’s been independent since he turned 21. Now 26, he still goes home regularly. “We have this rule in my home, no showbiz. We literally can’t talk about it unless it’s a discussion we need to have,” he says. “Those conversations bring us back to who we really are and the stuff that really matters.”
For somebody who wasn’t meant to enter show business, each day at work fills Pangilinan with so much purpose. “I’m in a position to help improve the lives of others around me and those who don’t have the same privilege, and have so much potential to be so much more. I love that I can be a vessel,” he says, going even beyond the industry. “Being part of change in general will always be something that I look for and be hungry for when I do anything. I love seeing other people happy, especially the ones I love.”
For now, however, his big career goal is to do an action film like his grandfather, the late Tony Ferrer, a.k.a Agent X-44, the James Bond of the Philippines. “Not all out. No jumping out of a helicopter,” he says, laughing. Pangilinan’s journey proves that sometimes, destiny doesn’t ask; it drags you along, kicking. Maybe a jump scene isn’t too far behind.
By MARBBIE TAGABUCBA Photographs by BORGY ANGELES. Styling by NEIL DE GUZMAN.
Vogue Man Editor: DANYL GENECIRAN. Grooming: Jam Pareño. Producer: Julian Rodriguez. Beauty Associate: Bianca Custodio. Photographer’s Assistant: Pao Mendoza and Rojan Maguyon. Stylist’s Assistants: Bianca Zaragoza, Ticia Almazan. Video: Edrey Paul Biteng. Videographer’s Assistant: Lester Soneja Dela Cruz. Video Editor: Lorenzo Corro. Shot on location at Coco’s Garden Manila.
