Jayson Mondragon

“One last time para wala akong pagsisihan,” Jayson thought. In a last ditch effort to revive his dying dream of becoming a scriptwriter, Jayson submitted his resume to ABS-CBN for the company’s vacant writer position. He wasn’t expecting much. After all, it was his eleventh application to the country’s leading media and entertainment network. 

Jaypee Jose

The tarnished iron rings of the tricycle
are on the edge as we traverse the uneven pavements, a mix of concrete and gravel surface, of Encanto, a barangay in Angat, Bulacan. A two-hour travel from Metro Manila, after boarding a bus and a jeep, then a tricycle, the grove of trees that overcasts roadside shadows is atypical of the towering buildings and nests of wires in the city. 

One thing about Cubao is the air will always be sultry even when dusk has completely fallen. It is approaching 7:00 pm, when a prominent creative joins us at a little hole-in-the-wall kitchen bar. His warm smile only makes the hot weather agreeable. He swears his alias “Rombutan” doesn’t mean much, just a portmanteau of his name and the prickly fruit.