Do we like Miguel Benjamin Guico?
Our score: 7 out of 10. A clean record on harm and no court or conduct trouble found, but the public record on his own causes is thinner than we'd like.
Miguel is one half of the Guico twins who started Ben&Ben, the Manila folk-pop band that turned sing-along heartache into stadium business. He is the lead vocalist and a songwriter, and in early 2026 he wrote the single “Duyan” for his wife, reportedly cranking out a lot of it in his car in about three hours.
Nothing new on him lately in the controversy department. The latest news is the January 2026 release of that love song, where he admitted the nerves of letting go of a song once it's out in the world. That's the whole drama.
On the harm check, we found no words or acts of his own against LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or anyone else. We also found no public statement from him on the SOGIE equality bill, so he gets no bonus points for being loudly on side, just a clean sheet. The record here is honestly thin on that front.
On the planet, the band signed up in 2019 as Nat Geo Asia #PlanetorPlastic ambassadors. Reports say they cut single-use plastic from their tours and joined an art campaign to revive the Pasig River. They put it as being part of a bigger movement to save the earth.
On the nice side, the twins became mission ambassadors for the Caritas Philippines Alay Kapwa programme in 2025, which is built around getting people to give monthly. They also became the first two-person coaching team on The Voice Kids PH, where they said they were after uniqueness at heart in young singers.
He is also not shy about big dreams. On Boy Abunda's show in February 2025 he predicted the band would win a Grammy in five years or less. That's cheeky confidence rather than anything nasty, and it's very much a mate-at-the-pub sort of boast.