Oblation run calls for end to hazing

MANILA, Philippines — Members of the Alpha Phi Omega (APO) fraternity yesterday held their annual oblation run at the University of the Philippines (UP) Manila campus, calling for an end the culture of hazing.

With this year’s team, “End hazing: A run for safer schools and organizations,” about 100 APO members ran naked around the campus and along Padre Faure street in Ermita.

The fraternity members also called for the junking of a pending bill in Congress seeking to revive the mandatory Reserve Officers Training Corps in college as well as an end to extrajudicial killings.

The APO members urged the government to uphold human rights and end the practice of red-tagging activist groups.

The oblation run was suspended for two years due to the pandemic.

The oblation run first returned in UP Diliman last February, with the theme, “Sama-sama Tayong Babaon Muli (We Will All Sink Together)” and calling for “accountability from the government for high inflation rate, ballooning foreign debt and other anti-poor policies.”

The issue of hazing among fraternities regained public attention following the death of John Matthew Salilig, a third year college student of Adamson University, during initiation rites in March.

This prompted calls from rights advocates, including the Commission on Human Rights, for the stricter implementation of Republic Act 11053 or the anti-hazing law, especially by the Philippine National Police and the Commission on Higher Education.