Source: Manila Bulletin  

By EDD K. USMAN

Over 1,000 runners, Muslims and non-Muslims, will stage at 6 a.m. today a 10-K fun run for peace along Roxas Blvd., Ermita, Manila, to welcome the holy month of Ramadan, when Islam believers abstain from food, drink, smoking, and sex from dawn to dusk.

Astronomical calculations reported by Muslims in North America said Ramadan’s first day will be on September 13, but as tradition demands there will be moonsighting teams around the world to observe the appearance of the new crescent moon.

In the Philippines, the Office on Muslim Affairs (OMA) under Executive Director Datu Ali B. Sangki will deploy moonsighting teams nationwide on September 11 to determine the first day of fasting.

Organizers of the fun run that starts at the Rajah Sulayman monument along Roxas Blvd. said that Sangki, Philippine Marines chief Major Gen. Muhammad Ben Dolorfino, top movie actor Abdulaziz Robin Padilla will join the event.

Filipino Muslim Foundation Inc. (Filmus) headed by Hassan "Tho" Dalimbang, president and founder, is spearheading the 10-K fun run for peace.

A few years back, Filmus staged a well-received caravan along Roxas Blvd. to welcome Ramadan.

Dalimbang said more than 1,000 people from 50 running clubs have signed up for the fun run.

Many runners come from Metro Manila’s Muslim communities and from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), he said.

The Filmus president said the event is fun and peaceful way of welcoming the Muslims’ holy month of fasting.

"It will prepare Muslims for the rigors of fasting," he said.

Dalimbang said with the crisis in Basilan and Sulu, Dolorfino, Padilla and Sangki were the early ones to commit their participation.

"Filmus is extending its invitation to sports and peace journalists, editors, columnists and sportscasters and be part of a continuing peace dialogue," he said.

The 10-K marathon for peace starts at 6 a.m. at the Rajah Sulaiman Shrine along Roxas Boulevard, turning right to T.M. Kalaw for the first five kilometers and completing the loop back along the southbound pedestrian side lane of Roxas Boulevard to Vito Cruz St., and end at the J.P. Laurel Memorial Foundation Building on the corner of M.H. Del Pilar and Pedro Gil Streets.

Prizes in cash will be given to the winners, he said.

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