Where: AS Steps, Palma Hall Building, University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman, Quezon City
When: 15 December 2009 (Tuesday), 12:00 noon
Organizers: Alpha Phi Omega (APO) Fraternity
The month of December is considered to be the APO Month. Members commemorate the founding of the organization 83 years ago, December 16, 1925. Alpha Phi Omega is the largest collegiate fraternity in the US and it has 250 chapters here in the Philippines.
The Oblation Run is an annual event conducted in several constituent universities of the University of the Philippines. In UP Visayas Tacloban, where I graduated, UP-based APO also conducts Oblation Run yearly. About 30 naked students streak around the AS Grounds holding placards with signs on them like "Serve The People," "No to Oil Price Increase," "Junk Cha-Cha," "Oust GMA," and other issues confronting the University and the Filipino society in general. The run started in 1977 in defiance to the banning of the movie, “Hubad na Bayani.” The movie depicted human rights abuses during the Martial Law era. The event continues today as a collective action of protests.
On June 18 this year, 100 fraternity members and alumni sprinted naked along the campus streets of UP Diliman to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the premier state university of the country. Jejomar Binay (the vice-presidential candidate under the political party, Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino in the 2010 Philippine elections), an alumnus of UP and a member of Alpha Phi Omega, spearheaded the opening ceremony of the UP Centennial Run. UP is now the only national university of the Philippines after Philippine Congress declared it as the national university by virtue of Republic Act 9500, signed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on the 28th day of April 2008.
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