Cerqueda has always known his father Miguel was unlike other kids’ dads “who would say goodbye and leave for work.”

Miguel Cerqueda, who worked at The Manila Hotel from the mid-1970s to the late 1990s, becoming resident manager and finally general manager, is a byword in the Philippine hospitality industry. He met Miguel’s mother Christine in Switzerland, where he was enrolled in hotel school and she was studying French. The couple married, moved to Spain where Marc’s brother, also named Miguel, was born. They eventually decided to live in Manila, where their second son made his appearance in 1971.