Fascinating Features

Fascinating Features Conversations with good people.

“Sa tanan trabaho, ngano tricycle driver imong gipili, Kuya?” guest writer Quinn Iderf Quiñanola asked tricycle driver M...
09/08/2025

“Sa tanan trabaho, ngano tricycle driver imong gipili, Kuya?” guest writer Quinn Iderf Quiñanola asked tricycle driver Mang Jun.

(Out of all the jobs, why did you choose to be a tricycle driver?)

“Wala naman koy lain choice siguro. Mura’g mao nalang gyud ni ang trabaho nga naay dakong kita na pwede nako buhaton. Naa man sad koy experience drive-drive, pero mao lang sad hinuon na,” Mang Jun replied.

(I don’t think I have any other choice anymore. This might be the only job left that actually brings in enough income—one I can still do. I have experience with driving, and that’s just it.)

Manong once dreamed of more. But dreams, he says, are expensive. In his world, education is a palace with locked gates, reserved for those born with keys—the scholars, the rich, the brilliant. “Only the smart and the wealthy get ahead,” he tells Quinn in Bisaya. “People like me, the poor, the unremarkable… we get left behind,” his words land like stones. “I am a dog.”

Click here to read the newest article by guest writer Quinn Iderf Quiñanola:
www.fascinatingfeatures.com/series-5/mang-jun

“I once visited a quiet park, all alone—no noise, no competition, no expectations,” guest writer Jericho Christian Ang r...
15/07/2025

“I once visited a quiet park, all alone—no noise, no competition, no expectations,” guest writer Jericho Christian Ang recalls. “I felt as if for the first time, after standing all my life, I sat down. There were no responsibilities to hold, no expectations to reach. It was just me and the world.”

“I recognized what I was missing: the need to break free.”

Click here to read the newest article by guest writer Jericho Christian Ang: www.fascinatingfeatures.com/series-5/jericho-christian-ang

The first few weeks of Eriko Angelo De Castro’s summer of 2025 were nothing but time for him to breathe. With his underg...
11/07/2025

The first few weeks of Eriko Angelo De Castro’s summer of 2025 were nothing but time for him to breathe. With his undergraduate studies wrapping up–waiting to get his political science diploma and gearing up for law school–his days consisted of playing video games, watching movies, and getting some drinks with his friends.

From Eriko’s perspective, all this free time only meant one thing. He was going through what John Mayer crooned about: a “quarter-life crisis”.

Read the article here: www.fascinatingfeatures.com/series-5/eriko-de-castro-1

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 ...
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

It was eight years after the second millenium, the third month of the year, and on the sixth day. The night sky, dark an...
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

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

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

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

The coronavirus lockdown shut Marianne Cruz down, being inundated with thoughts that she was all alone in her college an...
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

During the coronavirus pandemic, Marianne “Maui” Cruz entangled herself in a relationship with a boy whose life could no...
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

On November 20, 2023, Hans Balila rallied alongside around 300 university students of Cebu, walking out of their classro...
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

A self-described people-pleaser, Yamanni Pabillore allowed other people, good or bad or whoever they may be, to dictate ...
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

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