16/12/2025
12.16.25
12NN
UNIVERSITY NEWS | Oblation Run returns to UP Cebu as APO marks centennial year
The Oblation Run is set to return to the University of the Philippines (UP) Cebu today, December 16, as the Alpha Phi Omega (APO)–Zeta Omega Chapter revives the long-standing protest tradition in celebration of the fraternity’s centennial year. Scheduled between 12 noon and 3:00 p.m., the run marks its first staging on campus after being on hiatus for several years.
The Oblation Run is an annual activity organized by APO chapters across the UP system, traditionally held in December. The run involves APO members running naked along a designated campus route, drawing its name from the UP Oblation statue—a symbol of selfless offering to the nation.
The first Oblation Run was organized in 1977 at UP Diliman in protest of the banning of “Hubad na Bayani", a film that portrayed human rights abuses and peasant exploitation during the Martial Law period under Ferdinand Marcos Sr. Over time, the activity evolved into a non-partisan, highly visual platform for raising contemporary social and national issues.
In a statement to Cebu Daily News (CDN), APO said the last Oblation Run at UP Cebu took place in March 2019. Subsequent runs were suspended due to academic calendar adjustments following the K–12 transition, restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the fraternity’s shift toward relief and recovery efforts after Typhoon Odette in December 2021.
The 2025 revival coincides with APO’s centennial year and aligns with runs already staged in the past weeks at UP Los Baños, UP Clark, UP Mindanao, UP Tacloban, UP Baguio, and UP Manila. Additional runs are scheduled at UP Visayas today and at UP Diliman on Dec. 17.
The fraternity said the UP Cebu Oblation Run will center on calls for environmental accountability, transparency in governance, and the protection of academic spaces amid recent calamities that befell Cebu, underscoring the event’s role as a form of advocacy within UP campuses.
