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[av_heading heading=’ JUST ANOTHER DAY’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”]
BY LUIS BUENAFLOR JR.
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IF YOU’RE wondering and pissed off why it was really heavy traffic around noontime on General Luna Street last Wednesday, it’s the time of the year and it has nothing to do with the Christmas season.
Yes once again, it’s the time of the year when naked students, mostly males, of the University of the Philippines Visayas or UPV ran around the campus showing off their “cute thingy.” This much to the delight of screaming UPV coeds trying hard to be prim and proper while feasting their eyes on naked running boys with their “balls” jingling all the way.
Moi was in a jeep en route to SM City on Diversion Road when our jeep was caught in a standstill just in front of the main gates of UPV Iloilo City campus along General Luna Street.
At first moi had no idea what was going on other than it was probably just your hordes of Christmas shoppers off to a sale in SM City, when suddenly there were wailing sirens and from out of the UPV gates about 10 naked young men came running towards General Luna Street.
Well, they were not completely naked as they were all wearing light blue and white colored masks and running shoes but as far as their “birds” were concerned, these were all out in full Monty.
Yup, it was the annual “Oblation Run”, a time-honored tradition in all campuses of UP usually done as a prelude to the annual Lantern Parade in the university.
And for the uninitiated:
“The Oblation Run (sometimes referred to as the Ritual Dance of the Brave) is an annual event held by the University of the Philippines (UP) chapters of Alpha Phi Omega (APO) in different UP campuses. The runners are male, and traditionally run completely naked in public places, with their genitals fully visible, on a designated route. The event was first organized in 1977 at the University of the Philippines Diliman to promote Hubad na Bayani (Tagalog for ‘Naked Hero’), a film. It draws its name from the Oblation, a statue of a nude man located in every University of the Philippines campus, which symbolizes ‘a selfless offering of one’s self to the country.’ The event is usually done on Dec. 16 and serves as a protest to contemporary national issues. Participants of the Diliman Oblation Run are male APO members numbering 24 on average. Women participating in the event, however, are not unheard of. Runners usually bear masks to hide their identities, and may wear leaves to cover their genitals. They usually hand roses to a number of female spectators.”
Since the jeep was stuck in traffic, we had no choice but to watch the “Oblation Run.” It’s just wishful thinking that there would be female participants as a couple joined in full naked splendor during the 2005 edition of the run in UP Diliman. Sadly, they were all male runners.
But that was not the case with moi’s fellow passengers; there were four female college students from the University of San Agustin and their immediate reaction was to reach to their bags and get their cell phones not to text or call someone but to use the phone’s camera to take pictures of the naked boys.
There were also a couple of Senior High School girls from St. Paul’s University; one remarked “Oh, a smorgasbord of ‘you know what’ and they come one after the other” while her companion said, “Yuck, I just had chorizo and boiled eggs for breakfast, now they’ll never be the same again for me.”
And the two male students from that maritime school were giggling as if they were enjoying something that they’re not supposed to.
While the rest of the working class passengers seemed like they were probably not aware or interested in what was going on; they were just in a hurry to go home.
These are the themes for the 2017 edition of the Oblation Run: end drug-related killings, rebuild war-torn Marawi City, lift martial law in Mindanao, and resume the peace talks between the government and the communists.
A naked or nude protest doesn’t seem to work – it may attract media attention – unless you’re PETA or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals staging a nude protest against the use of animal fur.
You want President Rodrigo Duterte to lift martial law in Mindanao and stop these so-called “extrajudicial killings” by showing him your “bird”?
Chances are he’ll just laugh at you, maybe even donate a pair of knickers for you. (brotherlouie16@gmail.com)/PN
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