BACOLOD CITY – Organizers of the 43rd MassKara Festival here condemned the malicious act by a group of spectators on one of the participants of the 1st Balik Yuhom XC Race on Sunday, Oct. 2.
In a viral post on social media this week, the culprits were seen fetching water from a stream by the race path, where there were carabaos nearby.
One of the spectators then handed a plastic bottle of water to one of the bikers, whom they filmed and made fun at.
Roseller “Jojo” Ramos, a member of the organizing group, Team Armands, said they immediately acted on the incident and got in touch with one of the three culprits as the two others seemed to have deactivated their social media accounts. However, they got no response.
Ramos clarified that the culprits were not race participants, but spectators, “who should have been more circumspect in their actions considering that we want everybody, especially those who travelled here for the race, enjoy our MassKara Festival.”
She said the culprits were not even members of the biking community here.
Ramos said they were hoping to deal with it privately because they believed the culprits were minors. However, there was no response from any of them.
“We don’t want that prank to mar the success of the bike run,” Ramos added.
Nevertheless, Ramos said they have apologized to the victim who actually won the race in the LGBTQ category. “It was supposed to be a big thing for the LGBTQ community because races don’t normally have that kind of category, and we are sorry that this thing has to happen.”
The Balik Yuhum Foundation Inc. led by Atty. Pinky Ocampo, festival director, condemned the act and appealed to Bacolodnons to “put our best foot forward as we want to make our participants and visitors feel welcome and get the best experience out of this festival.”
According to the organizer, the victim has no plan to file a case against the culprits.
Ocampo said it is unfortunate for them to be victimized by pranksters. She hopes this incident won’t happen again.
The race lured bikers from Cebu, Iloilo, Guimaras, Antique, and Negros Oriental, and had more than 2,000 participants.