His image is similarly ubiquitous chez Gardo, a shack without plumbing in Manila’s largest slum, Tondo.

Years ago, while visiting Florence, Italy’s famed Uffizi gallery, screenwriter David Hemingson found himself captivated by the famed painting of the holy family known as the Doni Tondo.

Helping this along is another inspiration taken from the Doni Tondo, in that Hemingson thinks of Barton’s temporarily vacant Barton school grounds as “a biodome.”

Felizardo lived in Parola Tondo, sometimes described as Manila's worst slum.

Jessie Conde, a regular at a court built by waste pickers in the slums of Tondo, said he always turns to basketball when things get tough at home or at school.