25 fratmen run naked to protest Mindoro mining
Photo by Glen Ramirez
CALAPAN CITY— Twenty-five fratmen chanting “No to Mindoro mining!” ran naked in downtown Calapan Tuesday.
The 30-minute run of members of the Alpha Phi Omega (APO) was the fraternity’s “simple way” of protesting mineral exploitation on Mindoro island, said Mario Ramos, grand chancellor of the APO chapter in Divine Word College of Calapan.
“We do not have enough resources to fight big mining companies like Intex Resources. But in this unadorned way, we know we can encourage others to launch anti-mining protests in their own way too,” he said.
The 25 APO members, who sprinted nude through the busy JP Rizal St., symbolized the 25-year ban on large-scale mining in Mindoro, Ramos told The Mindoro Post.
APO Kalap president Boy Ricaflanca said the fraternity’s traditional “Oblation Run” was also carried out with the same theme in other towns south of the capital. APO Kalap is the fraternity’s alumni association in Calapan City.
“There are other associations of APO in other municipalities like Victoria and Roxas that also conducted ‘Oblation Run’,” Ricaflanca said.
“This is our support for the Mindoreños’ call to stop Mindoro Nickel Project and the newly-approved Agusan Mining where four municipalities are covered,” he said.
At least three big mining firms have been given clearance by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to explore the island for minerals.
The DENR gave the green light to US-based Pitkin Petroleum Ltd.’s oil exploration in about 6,600 square kilometers of land in the towns of Sablayan, Calintaan, Rizal, San Jose and Magsaysay in Occidental Mindoro and in Bulalacao in Oriental Mindoro.
Photo by Glen Ramirez
Agusan Petroleum has exploration permit in Abra de Ilog in Occidental Mindoro and in the resort town of Puerto Galera and nearby San Teodoro in Oriental Mindoro.
Norway-based Intex Resources, meanwhile, is fighting a DENR order temporarily revoking its environmental compliance certificate to mine an area of 11,216.6 hectares in the towns of Victoria, Pola and Socorro in Oriental Mindoro and Sablayan in Occidental Mindoro.
The local governments of Mindoro, together with the multisectoral network Alyansa Laban sa Mina and members of the Catholic church, have declared the mining activities as illegal, citing the large-scale mining prohibitions of Mindoro.
On Saturday, an ordinance ordering a 25-year mining moratorium came into force in Occidental Mindoro. A similar ban has been in effect in Oriental Mindoro since 2002.
The “Oblation Run” began in 1977 at the University of the Philippines in Diliman when the movie “Hubad na Bayani” was banned by former dictator Ferdinand Marcos. The film depicted human rights abuses during the late president’s martial rule.
I wish that when you upload naked pictures, you should upload only naked that is not blurred and no boundaries to see them nakedly. Can you do this for me? But in this article, men in Mindoro are rallying naked for mining to help many people of their province for not the government stop their work/job. I think government stop the mining in Mindoro because that is a hitch for every people in the said province. But helped them for their future, mining is also a job for poor or no knowledge but we can helped them, they work for their family not to anyone but their job is not a joke. Thank you!
-Marcus John Wright
sana walang harang
naku…may mga grammatical error pa rin…sorry po ha…pasensya na hindi english major. kakatakot mag post minsan baka maalipusta hahahaha.
sorry edit ko sana pero hindi ko ma mabawi yung post ko hehehe
sana maintindihan nyo naman tong sinulat ko kahit paano..pls..
@katy…hindi ko rin maintindihan hehehe.
– sayo jay-noel. nice try buddy.
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I know that this article has been posted ages ago but i have not had the chance to read it properly. Just today that i manage to sit down and take a closer look on it. But sabi nga huli man at magaling…maiintindihan ko pa rin..wahaha…iba ata yun. anyway. Yeah. I’ve just read it plus the comments that had been posted way back dec. I liked your comment by the way, Jay Noel, though hindi ko masyado naintindihan ang guso mo sabihin. I admire you for your courage. It takes gutts to write something.
I admired (and I have always been) APO for doing such things. In history, APO played its role in society as true and proper fraternity. They have always have purpose. Oblation run is always symbolical. its is their true expression. I thanked them for showing our kababayans a true example of what to believe in and where side to stand to.
The large scale mining in our province is a concern of every mindoreno. Mindorenoes all over the world, Mindorenoes all over the province and more so, Mindorenoes living in Mindoro. The effect will certainly affect the province future. We dont have to enumerate all of the ill-effect that we will be experiencing in the future coz we (commonsense) knew what will happen.
Large Scale Mining could bring temporal benifits to people, barangays, municipalities, etc. But these are all temporal. The permanent thing that we will experiencing in the next decade or so is, death caused by floods, landslides, water contaminations, deforestations.
This pro-development that some people are arguing about entails DESTRUCTIONS. Destructions in our natural resources, destructions in our well balanced way of living, distructions in our human existence.
It is not only that, this also entails destruction of the premitive culture of our Mangyans. This development meant simple, displacing our Mangyans from their ancestral domain. The land that has been taken away from them for so many decades, or century perhaps. Our Mangyans posses very rich culture, if they were displaced, it means taking the heritage of the Mangyans and taking away of our heritage of being mindorenoes.
Large scale Mining is a ” death penalty” imposed on our province and other provinces, if we let it to happen. It is only a matter of time that our beautiful province will turn into a “dead province” or “Ghost province” if you wanna call it that way. Who would be willing to live in a province where flooding happens all the time? Who would love to live in a province where you cant grow plants and vegetables, and farmers cant till the land nomore. Who would visit the province if you cant swim in our beaches because they are all contaminated? Its only a matter of time, life is nomore exciting and meaningless in Mindoro if we let Intex Mining Company dectates and create our future.
We, Mindorenoes, must stand our ground and do something. We could do such things in our small special way. We dont need to be APO running around the town naked, we dont need to be leaders of government shouting on the stage, we dont need to be big to do small things. Go and inform your friends, social awareness will help a lot, go and post them in your facebook accounts, in your friendster accounts. And join in mass action to prevent this to happen.
Lastly, we might be promised that the ECC is already revoked. (Thanks to the hard work of our 25 kababayans who protested infront of DERN not so long ago) but the threat of other strategies that Intex in doing is still around. As long as our province is rich in natural resources the “intruders” will always be around. It’s like the SMELL OF HOT PANDESAL in the morning, the smell is inviting, you cant resist. We have to be vigilant and ready to defend our province for it is our place. It is our home. It is ou Life.
you’re welcome kathy, we are bold enough to stand against mining, he he he
HAAA???!!! Ano kamo Jay? What language was that? Engliski? harharhar
oi xori if may mali me grammar, eh correct mo na lang me if pwede at willing naman ako matutu kung tuturuan mo ako,,,, ingatz poh at merry christmas po
The moment of truth, fighting the Mining Exploration in Oriental Mindoro particularly the constituents of Municipality of Victoria. In may opinion, i consider my self as a neutral people because all of us believe that their a two common word if we talking about the mining exploration here in our municipality, the Advantage and Disadvantage of Mining Industry.
But the big question is What is the real essence of Mining Exploration here in our Municipality?
I knew it, why don’t we try to listen to the different people live here in the Municipality of Victoria, they are considered the Pro and Anti Mining.
The Pro Mining defined the Mining Exploration here in our Municipality as a “Pro-Development” because they believe that the mining industry can help to the people of Municipality of Victoria to have a work not only for them selves but for their family as well, which the Government of Municipality of Victoria can’t provide to the people. But for me, the only reason why people believes in INTEX Company (Mining Exploration) because they need to earn money and to continue their life. It easy to say that some people is Pro Mining and if you are a Pro Mining you are consider as a ANDAL AMPATUAN JR. a Murderer of Innocent people.
People of Municipality of Victoria, we need to balance every things before we judge other people, because i believes that every people had there own opinion and beliefs and we need to respect it.
But us of now, i can’t blame the supporter of Anti Mining because they believe that if the Mining Exploration continue it can’t affect the life of many people in many reason.
But in the end of my massage, i think we need to do our best in performing our duties as a people and individual of our community.
tagalogin mo kaya? hindi ko naiintindihan e
Thanks APO for joining the advocacy, nakedly.