2017 UP Manila Oblation Run pays tribute to rights activist killed in Batangas

Wearing masks, some members of the Alpha Phi Omega of the University of the Philippines in Manila on Thursday ran naked around campus for their annual Oblation Run.

According to the university's Information, Publication, and Public Affairs Office (IPPAO), this year's run, titled as "Unbound: A Homage to Her Revolution," was a tribute to Josephine Lapira, the "student leader and women's rights activist who lived up to the ideals of the Oblation, selflessly offering her life in pursuit of serving the people."

Lapira was among the 14 suspected New People's Army (NPA) rebels killed during an encounter with government forces in Nasugbu, Batangas last month.

In the video posted by The Manila Collegian, the official student publication of the university, men, while holding white roses, were heard shouting, "Lumalaban sa karapatan!" while running along the campus' Rizal Hall.

The Oblation Run in Manila came almost a week after a similar protest run by 30 masked members of fraternity's Diliman chapter at the University of the Philippines campus in Diliman on Friday.

The run in Diliman was in protest of the spate of extrajudicial killings blamed on President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs. — MDM, GMA News