Do we like Pablo?
Our score: 7 out of 10. A clean record and real achievements, but the coverage is thin on where he stands on LGBTQ+ people and the planet, so it stops short of the top.
Pablo is the leader of Filipino boy band SB19 and a founder of the group's own agency, 1Z Entertainment. That matters: this is a band that built its own company rather than waiting for a label to hand it a shot. In April 2026 he stepped up from founding CEO to president, focusing on artistic direction and homegrown talent.
His closest thing to a scandal was a fan fight. In June 2024 a volleyball player joked that she only knew Starbucks when asked about SB19 at an event in South Korea, and fans from both sides went at each other online. Pablo's response was to ask fans to respect that not everyone knows the group, and to back every Filipino working to lift the country up. She later apologised.
On the harm check, the record is clean but quiet. No sources turned up with him saying anything against LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants, vaccines or climate science, and no reporting links him to anyone who pushes that stuff. He has not campaigned loudly for those causes either, so it's a pass on absence rather than a rainbow-flag win. That's honestly the whole list.
The closest he gets to politics is a September 2025 Facebook video he made with bandmate Josh Cullen, which the Daily Tribune described as a response to frustration over corruption in government. It pulled millions of views. Venting at corruption is hardly a red flag, though the tabloid-style write-up suggests it was raw and sweary on his bandmate's side.
The recent run is the good stuff. SB19 became the first homegrown Filipino act to play Lollapalooza in Chicago in July 2026, with the Philippine tourism department holding a public viewing party back home. On 15 September Pablo took Songwriter of the Year at the Awit Awards, while the band collected three more trophies for DUNGKA!
He has also weighed in on AI-generated covers and artists' rights, which is a fair thing for a songwriter and agency boss to care about. As a boss, he describes 1Z as built by artists for artists, which is the sort of language that suits a bloke running a company on his own terms.