My first visit to school since graduation day last year had to be about naked men running.

I traveled all the way from Davao’s downtown area to Mintal, Tugbok district (where the University of the Philippines is) to witness the Alpha Phi Omega (APO) Oblation Run because, surprisingly, I have never experienced it during my five-year stay in college.

The return of the UP tradition this year was intriguing and interesting, because for the past three years, it wasn’t held because of the university’s student affairs restriction. The last Oblation Run was in 2009.

I missed it because I was asleep  in my dorm room. I awoke to hear a bunch of girls screaming outside, and when I checked to see, the parade of birthday suits had already passed.

Fast-forward to this year, when the activity was hyped on Facebook and Twitter by some UP Mindanao students.

I just had to witness the event.

Crowded

An unusually crowded university atrium was the first thing I saw. Students who would normally go home on Fridays for the weekend stayed behind for the run.

A semicircular path was created in the atrium for the runners. Students, boys and girls alike, stood by in excitement, like lions waiting for their prey.

A TV crew had its camera at the ready, but APO advised them (and the rest of the students) to limit their video/photo coverage to the upper bodies of the runners.  That also meant limiting my trigger-happy camera.

Everyone seemed excited. A bunch of rowdy boys was jokingly chanting the vernacular word for penis. Some girls were already calling out for the event to start. And when it did, screams filled the air.

“Ug sa walay pagdugay dugay, pag-andam na mo para sa…” (Without further ado, brace yourselves for…) the emcee called, summoning an even louder wave of screams and shrieks from the audience, “…the Philippine national anthem!”

The crowd’s screams were replaced with laughter.

Run for the environment

Apparently, a short program had to be held before the runners. Speeches and poems about the environment were read on the microphone. But few students seemed to be listening. This year’s Oblation Run carried the theme “Dagan sa Mindanao—pakighiusa alang sa kinaiyahan,” APO’s call to protect and care for the environment.

They saw this theme as timely, after seeing how many people in Mindanao have already suffered from nature’s wrath. Last year, Mindanao saw landslides and flash floods, which severely affected homes and lives.

“Last December, we were moved by the sorrowful happening that devastated parts of Northern Mindanao. The catastrophic ‘Sendong’ left nothing but damaged properties and grieving hearts,” the organization maintains.

“The calamity was a reminder for us not to neglect the importance of taking care of the environment.”

Unlike the numerous fun runs in Davao City the past months, APO’s Oblation Run lasted less than 120 seconds. But it was no less fun.

Days beforehand, by word of mouth, the organization invited students to wear blue. Maintaining the tradition, an Oblation runner would hand a rose to a girl to signify his gentlemanly traits. Other members of the APO interpreted the act of giving a rose as further pushing their cause.

Some boys did wear blue. And the police, which the university and APO “hired” to marshal the event? They wore blue, too!

But they didn’t get roses. What they got were wild girls (and boys) screaming at the sight of naked men when the Oblation runners, in masks, finally entered the scene.

Their bodies had been painted by architecture students with pictures of the environment and some animals. The runners carried roses, which they soon gave away, and signboards that read “Stop illegal mining/logging,” “Pangalagaan ating kalikasan (care for the environment),” “Reduce-reuse-recycle,” “Hubad na kabundukan damitan ng kagubatan.”

They ran only a lap in the semicircular path made for them. By the time they exited, the boisterous students had calmed down. After the singing of “UP Naming Mahal,” the atrium slowly became silent.

Students walked away and carried on with their lives. Some looked disappointed (“Ay, mao na to? That’s it?” I heard a  freshman quip), others no doubt would have memories and experiences, and the brave ones saved some photos.

In the end, it wasn’t exactly all about the naked men (their body paint and placards were too distracting). Maybe APO is really good at making sense of running butt-naked. Maybe voicing out a cause can be made more effective without microphones and clothes.