Running priest’s Good Friday run covers Vizcaya-Isabela

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya – By now, “running priest" Fr. Robert Reyes has covered more than 350 kilometers since he set off from Manila on March 29 in a Holy Week advocacy run for the environment and renewal of faith. Reyes will run at least 70 kilometers a day which will end at Isabela’s capital town of Ilagan on April 4. On Good Friday, Reyes passed by capital town Bayombong in Nueva Vizcaya before making a short stop in Bagabag town to address environmentalists and provincial officials of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). Afterwards, he rode on a bike accompanied by some 30 cyclists led by former Tour ng Pilipinas rookie Lupo Alava en route to Cordon town along the Isabela-Nueva Vizcaya border for another brief stop before departing once more on foot some 15 kilometers towards Santiago City. The 7-day run started from the DENR central office in Visayas Avenue in Quezon City passing through Bulacan. Fr. Reyes took off from Carranglan town in Nueva Ecija then ran up the winding Dalton Pass en route to the Nueva Vizcaya towns of Sta. Fe, Aritao, Bambang, Bayombong, Bagabag and Diadi. After addressing well wishers in Santiago City, Isabela, Reyes is expected to push forward to Echague, Alicia, Cauayan and finally Ilagan on Easter Sunday. The running priest’s Friday run will have covered more than 100 kilometers. Nueva Vizcaya provincial environment and natural resources officer Robert Amigo said that the advocacy run dubbed "Tubing, Benison, Obligasyon" is also conducted in support of the Earth Day celebration. In his statement, Fr. Reyes said the event seeks to heighten awareness among Filipinos and to take part in the transformation of the alarming state of our environment, particularly the diminishing water supply in other parts of the country. He cited over-consumption, waste, pollution, misappropriation of government funds, and destruction of watersheds, illegal logging and harmful extractive activities like mining and quarrying as malefactors in the continuing carnage of the environment. Fr. Reyes has already initiated a kick-off of the event when he braved the sweltering heat in drought stricken Isabela province last March 9 covering some 30 kilometers running across some villages in Ilagan. Reyes embraced the limelight after surviving thousands of miles running across the country for his advocacy against mining, gambling, illegal logging as well as perceived government excesses and other social maladies. — LGB/RSJ, GMANews.TV