The Internet can be a vile place, and once again, the behemoth has reared its cruel head. When Filipino-American actress Liza Soberano appeared on the YouTube series Can I Come In?, viewers were quick to latch onto what seemed to be all the wrong details of Soberano’s heartbreaking tell-all.
Soberano’s is a familiar name to audiences devoted to the Filipino romcom concept of “love teams,” in which an actor and actress are paired onscreen in films, shows, and public appearances. Soberano’s love team partner was Enrique Gil, with whom she had first been paired in the 2014 ABS-CBN series Forevermore. LizQuen (their love team name) went on to headline the romcom Just the Way You Are and the romantic drama Everyday I Love You, both of which were released in 2015 and propelled the young couple to stardom.
While the two confirmed their relationship status off-screen and had starred in several projects, both Soberano and Gil have spent the last several years leading separate full-length features (Soberano pivoted to starring in Hollywood films like the 2024 horror comedy Lisa Frankenstein, and Gil in the 2024 comedy I Am Not Big Bird). This has led to online rumors circulating about their relationship failing, with many pinning the blame on Soberano, who has been spotted in public with Jeffrey Oh, former CEO of record label Careless.
Oftentimes, it is difficult to separate a Filipino love team actor from the tabloid articles and rumors that surround them. As I attempt to describe Soberano’s acting career in the Philippines, I realize that her history in the world of love teams is so deeply intertwined with her onscreen projects that I myself sound like a tabloid reporter. However, in Can I Come In? — an intimate, cinematic, and unflinchingly honest documentary series created by Australian artist Sarah Bahbah — Soberano pulls back the curtain on her relationship, her childhood, and the abuse she endured during her time growing up in the United States and whilst building a name for herself in the Philippines.
The episode is painful to watch, as Soberano candidly recounts how her biological mother, a struggling crystal meth addict, and her mother’s abusive boyfriend, Michael, were just some of the reasons why she and her younger brother were eventually put into foster care. She recalls how her foster mother, Melissa, called her the “family dog,” forcing her to lick dog shit from the living room carpet and to sleep in the garage as punishment. Soberano and her brother were eventually removed from foster care by her grandparents; however, due to an abrupt change in their financial situation, the two siblings were then forced to move to the Philippines to live with their estranged and “demanding” biological father.
All of this is recounted in only the first 30 minutes of the roughly one-hour interview, as Soberano stares blankly at the viewer and tries to keep her voice from breaking. “I never feel like anybody actually listens to me,” said Soberano, “even when I’m crying for help.”
Wrong Takeaways
However, viewers seem to have latched onto the latter half of the video, which pivots to Soberano speaking on how she really felt about being part of a love team and how she and Gil had officially broken up in 2022, but had chosen to keep it a secret.
As of writing, the video has been viewed over 3 million times on YouTube alone, and it has amassed almost 10,000 comments. While many of these comments support Soberano, praising her for her courage to speak up about her abuse, others have chosen to villainize the actress.
To touch on some of these comments (but never quote: because why would we platform nobodies?), these viewers have blamed Soberano for her lot in life, arguing that she is the real cause of her breakup, while claiming that if Soberano wanted us to “mind our fucking business,” as she puts so aptly in the video, she shouldn’t have agreed to be interviewed in the first place.
This isn’t the first time that Soberano received backlash over her career and her love team, with many calling her “ungrateful” or “walang utang na loob” when she moved from her 13-year stint with ABS-CBN to Careless in 2023. But in Can I Come In?, Soberano speaks on her true feelings regarding the love team model. “If you’re lucky enough to actually be in love with your love team partner, it’s great,” she said. “But for other people that aren’t actually in a relationship, it’s restricting and it’s basically living a life in a lie.”
“For me, it was a bit of a fantasy, but I also treated it more like a safety net,” Soberano continued. “Through my love team, I gained a lifelong best friend. My first love. But also, it was when all the violence and abuse stopped because I started earning more and started being able to pay for myself. I was able to take myself out of poverty because of my love team.”
Did it have to take Soberano moving to the United States for her to feel safe and comfortable enough to share her own story? Viewers who have called Soberano “inggrata” fail to realize that they’re reinforcing a toxic Filipino mindset that treats success as something owed, rather than earned. For them, Soberano’s story is not one of resilience, but rather of someone unwilling to accept that her fame as an actor comes with a debt. Because a value as destructive as “utang na loob” continues to persist, whether this be online, in the country’s entertainment industry, or in our own lives, it’s no wonder that Soberano felt the need to keep her side of the story out of the spotlight for so long.
Soberano ends the interview in a cake-slicing sequence that has her leaving a final message for viewers, regardless of what they think of her. “I just hope that everyone will be a little kinder to themselves,” said Soberano, “and not tolerate bullshit. Don’t let people hurt you. Don’t stay because you’re afraid of rocking the boat. Love yourself first, and life will get so much better.”
