Eastgate had come to publish the magazine after Soliven was asked to bid for it by PAL president Dante Santos.

[3] In 2006, Soliven, writing in the Star, contemplated publishing Mabuhay as a general travel magazine that would also be available in newstands,[3] which led to Eastgate releasing a new magazine, Mango, three years later.

In 2012, under Eastgate's management, tour guide and cultural activist Carlos Celdran remarked that he loved the magazine,[7] while businessman Andrew Marasigan, writing in the Manila Bulletin, noted that since Ink began publishing Mabuhay in 2016 there have been positive improvements in its format and content.

[8] The magazine has won several awards, both local and international,[9] and both for its travel photography and its journalism.

[12] However, it is not immune to criticism: in 2012 it was criticized for using transphobic language in its reporting of Jenna Talackova's entry in that year's Miss Universe Canada pageant — an act for which it later apologized and corrected in its digital edition.