The Apolinario Mabini Hiking Society, later popularly known as APO Hiking Society, or simply APO, was a Filipino musical group. The group had its fledgling beginnings in 1969 at the Ateneo de Manila high school, with 15 members: John Paul Micayabas, Lito de Joya, Sonny Santiago, Gus Cosio, Renato Garcia, Chito Kintanar, Kenny Barton, Bruce Brown, Butch Dans, Kinjo Sawada, Ric Segreto Macaraeg, Goff Macaraeg, Doden Besa, Jim Paredes, and Boboy Garovillo. The group’s name was created from the acronym AMHS representing their school with a witty twist having an irreverent reference to the paralyzed Philippine revolutionary intellectual and hero, Apolinario Mabini, and later shortened to “Apo”, an Ilocano term for a wise man or a Tagalog term of grandchildren, and later re-branded to “APO”. Contrary to popular belief, the “Apo” name was not a reference to the Philippines’s highest peak, Mount Apo.

As the students advanced into college, Danny Javier joined the group. After graduation, the majority of its members left to pursue individual careers, with only three members remaining, made up of Jim Paredes, Boboy Garovillo and Danny Javier.

In the span of their professional career, Apo emerged as a principal adherent of the musical movement termed Original Pilipino Music (a.k.a. OPM), a milieu in which their original musical contributions and cultural influence became essential. The Apo became involved in record production, talent management and organizing artists under the Organisasyon ng Pilipinong Mang-aawit (O.P.M., acronym translation: “Organization of Philippine Singers/musicians”). The group expanded its activities into establishing and furthering the careers of new OPM artists in the Philippines.

To date, the group has released 27 albums including two hugely successful tribute albums produced in 2006 and 2007 by its management group, featuring numerous young bands freshly reinterpreting Apo’s expansive repertoire. In 2009 Apo Hiking Society performed a series of farewell concerts and finally disbanded due to “diminishing creative process.”