Fratmen run naked against Lumad killings, climate change

CEBU, Philippines - Several members of Alpha Phi Omega fraternity yesterday ran naked around the University of the Philippines-Cebu campus rallying against various social issues.

Thirty masked and naked male APO members, who are alumni and students from different schools in Cebu, took part in the 15-minute run, which also marked their 90th founding anniversary today.

The Oblation Run, the traditional annual run of the fraternity which is also referred to as the “ritual dance of the brave” that seeks to dramatize pressing issues of the year, started from Cebu Cultural Center inside the premises of UP-Cebu campus at past 3 p.m.

According to Alexar Pada, an alumnus of UP-Cebu and facilitator of the event, Oblation Run is an annual event by APO that expresses the group’s stance on socially relevant issues.

“We want to raise awareness among Filipino people about the recent and pressing social issues,” he told The FREEMAN.

They displayed placards baring oppositions on Lumad killings, tuition hikes, human rights violations, discriminations, campus repression, and climate change, among others.

The group also condemned violations of human rights law, citing several Lumad killings in the last four months.

It can be recalled that paramilitary groups allegedly began harassing Lumads, with some of their leaders slain and causing the rest of the indigenous peoples to flee their homes.

According to the fraternity, the harassment violated provisions of Republic Act 8371 or the Indigenous People’s Rights Act of 1997, which mandates the state to “protect the rights of IPs to their ancestral domains to ensure their economic, social and cultural well being” and “recognize, respect and protect the rights of IPs to preserve and develop their cultures, traditions and institutions.”

As they aired their issues, the fratmen, in a show of chivalry, gave roses to women.

Hundreds of students watched the traditional annual run.

It was first held in 1977 to promote the film “Hubad na Bayani,” about the plight of the “sacada” or sugarcane migrant workers. — (FREEMAN)