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Fascinating Features, Cebu City (2025)

27/06/2025

One of Kat’s old dreams was to be a writer. She would be the essayist type, to be exact, convincing us all to be jolted in the brain by the ideas also jolting hers. With ease, she could write about how Britpop group The Spice Girls made their marks on feminism, girlhood, and sexuality.

And if anyone’s wondering, this is Kat’s Spice Girl ranking from most to least favourite: Scary Spice, Ginger Spice, Sporty Spice, Baby Spice, and then Posh Spice. “[Victoria Beckham] is beautiful and she’s very funny, but she didn’t really add much to the group,” Kat chuckled as she explained why Posh Spice is at the bottom of her totem pole.

Read the article here: www.fascinatingfeatures.com/series-5/kat-ruflo

16/06/2025

It was eight years after the second millenium, the third month of the year, and on the sixth day. The night sky, dark and silent, loomed over the place. Inside a small unfancy house was a couple. The woman who had her dress rolled up to her waist seemed restless, even aching. On her right side was a man, with his thick brows crumpled above his nose bridge. They were praying.

Hours passed yet their emotions remained high. He rubbed her belly from time to time, tears rushing along the mountains of his cheeks. Meanwhile, the woman felt contractions squeezing her intestines. It was gut-wrenching–literally. Then the midwife began the procedure.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Push!

Those were the only sounds in the room throughout the next few minutes. The clock was ticking back and forth, and so was her breath. The sky was still dark, as was her vision; the woman fell unconscious.

"God..." begged the man.

Click here to read the newest article by guest writer Strella Germino: www.fascinatingfeatures.com/series-5/strella-germino

06/06/2025

A younger Arielle “Aea” (pronounced ‘ey-ah’) Collera felt lonely. That’s not to say she felt alone, for an explicit difference exists between the two.

To be alone is to be physically by yourself, without anyone around at a given time. Aea was not alone; she rode bikes with her friends in their neighbourhood and hunkered down at the local internet café to kill zombies while playing Left 4 Dead. To this day, she likes being alone, sitting in coffee shops and doing things on her own.

To be lonely, on the other hand, is to feel isolated despite having people around you. Even when a crowd surrounded younger Aea, some of whom interacted with her, she felt empty, keeping her thoughts to herself and hesitated to let them out for others to hear and know.

Read the article here: www.fascinatingfeatures.com/series-5/arielle-collera

01/06/2025

For almost three years living in Cebu, Davao City-native Kenneth Zoe Madridondo was haunted by what he calls “The Cebu Curse”.

But what exactly is “The Cebu Curse”?

Case in point: Just when Zoe thought he would be having an easy day of going to school, he got hit by a jeep just outside the college entrance gates.

“I got hit by a jeep!” Zoe exclaimed to Kael—but in a hushed tone. “Like, what?! Where did I go wrong?!”

Read the article here: www.fascinatingfeatures.com/series-5/zoe-madridondo

16/09/2024

Yuan Villanueva said, “I’ll just say this bluntly: I think my life is built on a foundation of lies that I’ve fabricated myself just so I can get that attention.”

"And when I say my life is built on lies, I can say that my life is built on lies. Even having this interview, how would you know that I’m speaking the truth?”

Read the article here: www.fascinatingfeatures.com/series-4/yuan-villanueva-1

09/09/2024

The coronavirus lockdown shut Marianne Cruz down, being inundated with thoughts that she was all alone in her college and at home. Her class instructors began to wonder where Maui went. “I had fairly good grades. And then, one day, in the middle of the pandemic, I just stopped.

“It came to a point that I didn’t get out of bed. I had no good hygiene. Every single day, I'd watch episodes of Love Island and Too Hot To Handle – reality shows – because they were very low-maintenance. It’s either that or anime. Very low-maintenance. It doesn’t take a genius to figure [those shows] out.”

Maui would sleep, then wake up, then watch those low-maintenance shows, then repeat. Before she knew it, she stopped attending her classes. She lost her hold on the “concept of time.”

Read the article here: www.fascinatingfeatures.com/series-4/maui-cruz-2

04/09/2024

During the coronavirus pandemic, Marianne “Maui” Cruz entangled herself in a relationship with a boy whose life could not have contrasted more with hers. His family sat comfortably rich, whereas Maui’s was squarely working class. The discrepancy in their wealth bothered her. She kept linking his fortunes to his expectations of her. In hindsight, she now recognizes how hell-bent she was about contorting herself into pretzel-like shapes to fit into what she thought were her then-boyfriend’s standards.

Read the article here: www.fascinatingfeatures.com/series-4/maui-cruz-1

06/03/2024

On November 20, 2023, Hans Balila rallied alongside around 300 university students of Cebu, walking out of their classrooms in protest of what they consider to be flagrant injustices and archaic policies within the Philippine education system. Hans took to Fuente Osmeña Circle with his fellow students to make their calls for genuine change louder and clearer for politicians who have failed to make progress happen.

In the hours and days after the student walkout, Hans’ face was on several news outlets, from pictures published by Today’s Carolinian, Rappler, and the Philippine Star, to the front page of SunStar Cebu.

Hans’ mother may not have been too pleased to see her son’s face at the protest. She confronted him the day before the walkout when she saw one of his posts on Facebook, inviting others to join him and fellow student leaders.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter) by Hans himself – posted hours after the walkout – he confessed that he “lied” to his mother, telling her he couldn’t attend the walkout since he had classes that day.

“I think she knew I was lying,” Hans said in the tweet, “but, in a conflict-avoidant family, we never talk about politics.”

Read the article here:
https://www.fascinatingfeatures.com/features-series-3/hans-balila

21/02/2024

A self-described people-pleaser, Yamanni Pabillore allowed other people, good or bad or whoever they may be, to dictate what to do with her life just to satisfy them. Yamanni just goes with the flow of her ‘life,’ even if it means she has depended on other people to move it. “It’s exhausting to carve another path that’s for my own,” she said.

Because of the number of people Yamanni has befriended, she ended up creating a facade that would satisfy them. “A version that caters to everyone… What else are you going to do? People know you because of this and that.”

She ended up having to attach her own meaning to other people into something bigger. “What people think of me is literally my lifeline.”

Click here to read the newest article by guest writer Ridwan Anam:
https://www.fascinatingfeatures.com/features-series-3/yamanni-pabillore

07/02/2024

Before Nigel and September Boy (his second and latest ex-boyfriend) became an official couple, they pinned the date of when they would become exclusive: September 21st.

Nigel said the Earth, Wind, and Fire’s “September” became a “thing” for them, hence the choice.

It was only a matter of time until they, both senior high school students, could call each other “boyfriend.” Nigel said it was all for “formalities” at that point. They had everything but two: the label and the actual exclusivity.

However, sometime before September 21st, Nigel found himself seated somewhere in SM City Cebu, listening to his then-boyfriend, who was in tears.

While crying, September Boy revealed to Nigel that the night before they met up on that day at SM, a guy had gone to September Boy’s house, laid down in a bed with him, and kissed him. (Nigel would specify that the guy may have made the first move by pecking his then-boyfriend’s lips, but he also prefaced that the full details of the story escaped his mind.)

Nevertheless, peck or not, the lips that were pressed against September Boy’s lips – they did not belong to Nigel.

Read the article here:
https://www.fascinatingfeatures.com/features-series-3/nigel-hofilena

24/01/2024

Initially, studying at Masbate National Comprehensive High School went well for Grade 8 Stephanie “Steph” Doctolero because she wanted to blend in with the rest as the new kid in school. But moving back to Masbate would mark the start of a new pattern. “One random day, I decided, ‘Ah, I don't feel like going to school,' so I was absent the whole day,” she shared.

“I was really depressed during high school. It was a really bad phase,” she said. “I wouldn’t attend back in high school.”

Steph has proven that high school lessons were not a challenge for her since every time she took the exams (the only time she would go to school), she would pass. It got to a point where her periodical exam scores were the only ones carrying her grades. “I was shocked I passed Grade 9.”

Click here to read the newest article by guest writer Daniel Tabungar:
https://www.fascinatingfeatures.com/features-series-3/stephanie-doctolero

10/01/2024

To utter the words ‘I love you,’ for Carson Go, is a struggle. “I feel like it’s cringy when I do say it,” said Carson, then sharing how he squirms when hearing phrases like ‘I miss you’ and ‘I love you.’ He holds an aversion to receiving long sentimental text messages. When confronted by such messages, he dismisses the sender for what Carson perceives as corny emotionalism.

“I’m not used to telling people how much I love them,” he confessed. “I’m not used to showing affection.”

Read the article here:
https://www.fascinatingfeatures.com/features-series-3/carson-go

Fascinating Features

27/06/2025

16/06/2025

06/06/2025

01/06/2025

16/09/2024

09/09/2024

04/09/2024

06/03/2024

21/02/2024

07/02/2024

24/01/2024

10/01/2024

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