Fast food and friends: What's your barkada story?

MANILA, Philippines - There’s an episode in the early 2000s show The O.C. where the four (arguably) lovable frontrunners find themselves trapped in a mall. A night of makeshift street hockey and a hokey idea of camping is set to fix the underlying problem between the four, but it just seems to make it worse.

Then, post-mall debacle, they regroup at the pier and fix all of their problems over a couple of slices of pizza. That’s a common denominator throughout the show, really, or for most teen shows. Try and review most of the scenes of the show just before the credits roll and you’ll notice how often Ryan, Marissa, Seth, and Summer cool down from a routine Newport conflict over food and a chillax get-together.

The O.C. taught me that the magical combo of friends and food is a good way to bring barkadas closer together. In my experience, bonding with my friends has always been a crude mix of annoying tunes from High School Musical that we all sing along to, an SUV, the open road, and fast food. We channel our inner ZaNessa (Efron and Hudgens) and break down HSM’s Breaking Free with mouths full of French fries. Even those late-night trips we would take to our local McDonald’s solidified the food-plus-friends equation; groups of friends would be scattered around the Katipunan branch of McDo with food in both hands while completely engrossed in their nostalgic recaps of the night.

Now McDonald’s makes barkada bonding even easier with the Happy Bundle, a totally customizable four-person meal that gives each member the freedom to get exactly what they want, without the hassles of an eye-rolling compromise. The next four versatile barkadas we caught up with know exactly how complicated ordering food can be and how the Happy Bundle can fix that. These barkadas know how important the power of bonding is, even if they don’t collectively belong in the same cultural faction. Read up on their quips on rolling as a crew and how they keep their ties bound with the comforts of fast food.

University Student Council (USG)

De La Salle University

Happy hands: The members of the De La Salle University student council are all smiles as they flash the iconic golden arches of McDonald’s.

Kaila Astorga, 18, Grace Chua, 19, Paolo Guico 17, Jana Cabuhat, 20

What is the origin story of your barkada?

GRACE CHUA: I wouldn’t call our group a barkada, per se. We started hanging out a lot during the preparations for our campaigns during the general elections. We went from there to winning the elections and to now serving the student body together. We just realized later on how we always ended up hanging around with each other. 

What do you guys usually do for fun?

JANA CABUHAT: It’s not really fun by usual standards, but our “fun” time usually revolves around eating somewhere just talking about everything and nothing. Just taking a break from our academics and extracurricular activities. 

What is the dumbest thing that you guys have done as a group that you laugh about now?

PAOLO GUICO: Dumbest thing we’ve done, we got overheard talking about something that wasn’t meant to be heard by other people. We got so scared about getting in trouble at that time, but now, we laugh about it and shrug it off. 

KAILA ASTORGA: Let’s just say we had a few inside jokes about a lot of things that ended up as really fond memories.

What’s your barkada’s best bonding moment with McDo?

JC: The general elections 2012 have definitely been one of the experiences that really bonded us. From drafting our platform to campaigning our hearts out, we did all of these with McDo in our stomachs. From McDo burgers to fries to hotcakes and apple pies, these were definitely part of our elections experience.

Fine Arts Block Mates

University of Santo Tomas

Art attached: University of Santo Tomas (from left) Fine Arts block mates Clarina, April, Christine and Ivana started out as strangers before eventually becoming the best of friends.

April de Leon, 19, Clarina Mae Gonzales, 19, Christine Lee 20, Ivana Segovia, 21

What is the origin story of your barkada?

CLARINA MAE GONZALES: Our interest in arts and sparkly girly things brought us together. We jive well in group works also, so we instantly got together and that’s about it!

What do you guys usually do for fun?

IVANA SEGOVIA:  Other than just simply having fun conversations with one another, our group loves capturing moments, especially candid funny pictures. Lately, we’ve been digging up past pictures of ourselves and make fun of each other.

APRIL DE LEON: Eat! Some of us are “food-pedias” and, good cooks. We bond most when eating. Food is the answer to everything!

CHRISTINE LEE: Look at sites featuring (our) favorite artists.

What is the dumbest thing that you guys have done as a group that you laugh about now?

IS: One time, when we were chatting with each other while passing by the field in our school, one of us noticed that there were football players around us who seem to have stopped playing. Out of confusion, we stopped, too. That was when we realized that a football game was actually ongoing, and that we interrupted their game by unconsciously walking through the center of the field. It was really, really embarrassing yet something interesting to look back on.

What’s your barkada’s best bonding moment with McDo?

CMG: We used to have McDo day every Thursday. On that day, we indulge ourselves in our weeklong cravings and forget about all the plates we had to stay late making. Good food with good friends, definitely a perfect day-ender.

Ateneo Debate Society

Ateneo de Manila University

Camaraderie through competition: (from left) Titus, Rico, Denise and Regine from Ateneo de Manila, found their friendship bound through a common interest in debate.

Denise Recom, 17, Regine Cabato, 17, Titus Villanueva, 18,  

Rico La Viña, 21

What is the origin story of your barkada?

DENISE RECOM: The Ateneo Debate Society is one of the most prominent organizations in Ateneo, so it’s no surprise to find that getting past the screening process and gaining varsity status is rather hard. Just being able to survive that process already ties the entire team together.

Tell us a funny anecdote about your group. 

RICO LA VIÑA: Well, some ADS members competing in New Zealand believed that they were being chased by a sheepdog. 

TITUS VILLANUEVA: There was one time after a long day of competing in Cagayan de Oro when we were so stressed out, a group of us got into a local cab for a night of drinking. In CDO they have a form of public transportation that’s a hybrid between a jeep and a tricycle. Out of sheer stress, we began to sing in our loudest (and out-of-tune) voices, random Broadway tunes for everyone in the vicinity to hear.

DR: Our jokes are almost always (or maybe only ever) insider jokes. Seriously. We have debater jokes. (They’re funny, really!)

What do you guys usually do for fun?

TV: The common answer would be to debate, but actually we enjoy making jokes about each other in between rounds.

REGINE CABATO: Hmm, debate? I think this much is pretty obvious. I wouldn’t say we do it just for fun — it’s a service, really, and then we have fun while doing the service.  It’s kind of secondary.

What’s your barkada’s best bonding moment with McDo?

RLV: We ate a lot of McDo when we were competing in the 2011 national debate championships. We would rush to McDo in between rounds. The place is really convenient. It’s a good place to comfort yourself after a stressful (debate) round.

Members Of Upeepz

University of the Philippines, Diliman

High school dance: University of the Philippines students (from left) JM, Liza, Christopher and Hannah’s close friendship is rooted in a love for dancing.

Liza Carbonel, 21, Christopher Vergara, 20, Hannah Gonzales, 19, JM Babaran, 22

What is the origin story of your barkada?

LIZA CARBONEL: Our group started when we were in high school. We used to have different dance teams and we were originally competitors. We became friends because of our coaches and since our coaches were close, we became close, too. 

CHRISTOPHER VERGARA: After our eliminations, win or lose, we find time to eat and celebrate as a family that we call Indaiaw: Indak from Ateneo, Aglaia from Holy Spirit and Hataw from Claret.

Tell us a funny anecdote about your group. 

HANNAH GONZALES: On our first meeting, everyone in the Aglaia dance team was crushing on this guy Vergs (Christopher Vergara) from Claret, but a week after, Vergs cut his hair and he suddenly looked extremely unattractive. Then everyone started crushing on his teammate instead.

What is the dumbest thing that you guys have done as a group that you laugh about now?

JM BABARAN: When we decided to crash in one of our group mates’ house, we ended up getting my car hit by a parked car in the village. The funny thing is, after hitting the car we tried to bail, but came back afterwards.

What’s your barkada’s best bonding moment with McDo?

LC: We were in McDo and we were daring each other. Yung dare kay Vergs yung iki-kiss niya yung photo sa McDo, tapos yung isa magha-handstand (laughs) (Vergs’s dare was to kiss one of the photos in McDo; the other was to do a handstand).

Photos by GABBY CANTERO

Sittings by RAYMOND ANG

Shot at Daylight Studio in Cubao