IN ONE season, the Ateneo Debate Society (ADS) dominated two competitions: the Philippine Inter-Collegiate Debating Championship (PIDC) and United Asia Debating Championship (UADC).

Ateneo Team B members Danielle de Castro, Cecile Danica Gotamco, and Patrick Vincent Cocabo won the title in the PIDC while Ateneo Team 2 members Cecile Gotamco, Danielle de Castro, and Walter Wong prevailed in the UADC.

ADS Vice President (VP) for Public Relations Steffi Sales said, “ADS’ varsity training has always been intense and, most of the time, intimidating to people outside the org…It is empirical truth that the more we train, the greater probability of us winning, and of course there’s the added expectation of producing quality training rounds.”

The PIDC ended on April 12, with University of the Philippines, Diliman (UPD) as host. On the other hand, UADC was held May 12 to 18 in the campus of host Assumption University in Bangkok, Thailand.

Ateneo reign in PIDC

The final round in PIDC saw two Ateneo teams up against each other, reaching the championship after defeating last year’s finalists, UPD and UP Manila.

On the motion “This house believes that UN peace-keepers should be tried by an international body instead of to their nation states”, Ateneo Team B took the affirmative side, while Ateneo Team A took the negative.

Gotamco said that she felt extremely happy and proud when she learned that the teams fighting for the title were both from Ateneo.

“Especially since I’m the current VP of training varsity, it made me feel like our training program is working,” she said.

Knowing that the final round would favor Ateneo either way, ADS VP for Administration Andrea Bernarte said, “I personally felt really, really proud and happy. Having two [Ateneo] teams doing the finals was already a cause for celebration.”

Meanwhile, ADS VP for Training and Varsity Ray Philip Pine said, “I felt relieved because I was sure that Ateneo would get the championship that night.”

According to Sales, an all-Ateneo final had happened before in national and international competitions. “[But] it is still a refreshing and elating feeling to know that your own team will inevitably be the 2010 Philippine champions.”

She added, “Having an inevitable Ateneo win, however, did not hinder both teams from giving their best at the finals round…This was to be the same strength and potential that would soon win us the Asian title a month later at UADC.”

Gotamco attributed the win to the closeness and cooperation of her team.

Back-to-back

At the UADC, six out of 11 judges favored opposition Ateneo Team 2 in the finals round that had the motion, “This house would abolish parties based on ethnicity.”

Sales said, “Ateneo Team 2… [agreed] that there was a problem in these parties, although the better, non-endangering solution was not to abolish them but, instead, to set up a means for the improvement of these parties’ political platforms.”

ADS was also last year’s victor in the UADC.

The UADC was the first unification of the Asian Universities Debating Championship and the All-Asian Intervarsity Debating Championships, bringing in new and excellent universities for competition into the picture, according to Sales.

Rigorous training

“In terms of tournament preparation, ADS has created an office in-charge of training and varsity concerns. Varsity training is from Monday to Saturday, and we provide measures that encourage attendance,” said Pine.

Gotamco said, “For the most part, [we had] training and [read] up on current news.”

“[We] believe that speaking well in a strategic and comprehensible manner is never enough to win debates; it is a general rule to always be comprehensive and understand the underlying issues surrounding the debate in depth,” Sales said.

“It always helps that we keep in our minds that we have a legacy and reputation to uphold,” she said. “So we train hard, and we win hard.”