The country’s new breed of artists perform in the first Wish FM Ultimate Fandom Challenge at the Araneta Coliseum alongside their selected fans. The event is more like a fan’s day. Plus they get to help their chosen charities, too. Performers include Jason Dy, Darren Espanto, The Juans, Morissette, Daryl Ong, Juan Karlos Labajo, and Francis Lim.
Photo by I.R. Arenas
A monotonous routine: workers commute to work in jam-packed buses and go back home also in crowded buses. Imagine how stressful it is to work in the metropolitan Manila.
Photo by I.R. Arenas
Urban workers and dwellers become stranded as flooding damp the city’s roads. An hour before midnight, people still try to get home.
Photo by I.R. Arenas
A father carries his child uphill. Human settlements at the mountain base and mountainside live by farming. The lush vegetation provides a good sight, too, among the ledges and high slopes.
Photo by I.R. Arenas
This week has been graduation time for thousands of University of the Philippines students across different units. UP recently shifted its academic calendar, making the graduation rites on June instead of April. The Oblation statue is garbed with the sablay, UP’s academic costume since the 1990s, to commemorate the yearly ritual. (The photo was taken on June 2015.)
Photo by I.R. Arenas
Sachiko Miyashita is a rising name as a classical guitarist. Hailing from Sapporo in Hokkaido, she has performed concerts in 26 cities in 11 countries, and of course throughout Japan. Here, she performes at the Ayala Museum in Makati, Philippines.
Photo by I.R. Arenas
A story in my childhood tells that wherever a crown flower (Calotropis gigantea) shrub grows, a wartime Japanese soldier lies buried beneath it. These shrubs are still around in grassy parcels of land in my town, but not as abundant as before.
Photo by I.R. Arenas
The convenience of having a convenience store in the city is a godsend. Most people living in condos no longer have to go to fancy restaurants to grab food; no need to dress well, too.
Photo by Wata Dugayo
The neighbourhood karinderya offers cooked food at very low prices compared to the microwavable food packs in convenience stores.
Photo by I.R. Arenas
Second-hand books are not necessarily second class to newly printed ones. In such as a store, you can find books a variety of books ranging from novels to references to hobby books for a good bargain – a paradise for frugal buyers.
Photo by Wata Dugayo
Hardly a scene for a zombie movie, smoke permeates the night scene in a busy street full of food vendors in Pasay.
Photo by I.R. Arenas
Street food is cheap, fast, and comforting. Night-time food stalls invite customers to relieve their acute pangs of hunger.
Photo by I.R. Arenas
Visual Tales 