THE ATENEO Debate Society (ADS) ADMU A team won the championship at the Philippine Inter-Collegiate Debating Championship (PIDC) 2015 held on April 22 at the Asian Development Bank.
The PIDC is the largest national debate competition set in the Asian Parliamentary format. This year, 62 teams from 22 institutions participated in the tournament.
The final round saw ADMU A defeat another team from ADS, ADMU B.
ADMU A was composed of seniors Michael Agoncillo and Nico Flaminiano, and former ADS President Inah Robles (BS LM ‘14), while ADMU B was composed of seniors Azi Dela Paz, Edbert Ragadio and Abbo Hernandez.
The ADS sent six teams composed of three members each to the competition: ADMU A, B, C, D, E and F. ADMU C was made up of sophomore Katrina Chan and seniors Andrei Buendia and JV Valerio. ADMU D was formed by sophomores Angela Garcia, Roi Lim and junior Frances Robles. Sophomore Isaac Lee and seniors Sam Atilano and Rafael Zagala were part of ADMU E, while ADMU F was comprised of sophomores Aviel Hsu, Carla Gozo and senior Kester Go Biao.
Six ADS members served as adjudicators, namely, sophomores Gabbie Leung and Jeremy Sison, junior JB Capucao, seniors Denise Recomono and Paolo Tabuena, and Marianne Vitug (AB POS ‘14).
Competition
The participating teams underwent seven preliminary rounds that determined the 16 teams that participated in the finals series.
The finals series included the octofinals, quarterfinals, semi-finals and the final round of the competition.
The preliminary rounds and the octofinals were held at the University of the Philippines-Diliman (UPD) from April 17 to 21, while the finals series was held on April 22.
The topics of the preliminary rounds included education, media and information, sports, economics, international relations and social policy, while the finals series focused on development, conflict, gender and climate change.
Aside from teams ADMU A and B, the ADMU C and E teams advanced to the octofinals.
Agoncillo and Flaminiano won individual awards for being the second and sixth overall best speakers at the tournament, respectively, while Robles was awarded as the Finals Best Speaker and Overall Best Speaker.
Moreover, Buendia and Ragadio were recognized as the fifth and tenth overall best speakers, respectively.
Leung, Tabuena and Vitug were awarded as the tenth, fifth and second overall best judges, respectively, while Recomono garnered the award for Overall Best Judge.
Finals
In an interview with The GUIDON, ADMU A representative Agoncillo said that it was “bittersweet” finding out that the two teams battling it out in the final round were both from the Ateneo.
He said, “We were guaranteed that ADS would take the championship, but we were also assured of one team being on the losing end.”
Agoncillo explained that they had “just hoped to give everyone a good debate to watch.”
As the final round focused on the topic of climate change, ADMU A’s main argument was that it was necessary for developing states to put a limit on electricity derived from non-renewable resources to create a balance between environmental and economic development.
Agoncillo explained that their team believed that “economic development without care for the environment was futile since the environment cannot be fixed and development becomes much harder in the future when the environment has degraded.”
Robles added that environmental protection is easily disregarded since its effects are not immediate. Once the effects are visible, however, “most harms are irreparable.”
As the opposition, ADMU B argued that putting a cap on developing countries’ electricity derived from non-renewable resources is based on the state’s right to arbitrate between different social concerns.
According to Ragadio, “a cap would unduly force the state to focus on the environment when there could be more pressing concerns such as its people’s need for housing, healthcare, food and the like.”
The opposition said that the cap is unfair because developed states such as the United States of America have been allowed to use non-renewable resources to progress.
Moreover, ADMU B argued that the costly nature of earth-friendly technology only complicated matters for developing states.
Promoting discourse
For Agoncillo, the victory reaffirms ADS’s position of forwarding critical discourse in the Ateneo.
“It validates our voice as one that appeals to reason and has to be taken seriously,” he said.
Ragadio believes that climate change as the topic for the final round of the competition fosters new conversation and urgency on the matter. He hopes it will be a springboard for future action.
“We must not let this issue go not discussed once more,” Ragadio said.
For Flaminiano, awareness on climate change is critical because “every aspect of our lives requires the environment and the environment cannot be repaired.” He emphasized the need to always keep environmental protection in mind.
Ragadio continued by elaborating on how the arguments from the final round could be carried over to the Ateneo, which he sees as capable of large energy consumption regardless of how it is used by students.
“A cap would nudge the administration to implement wider information campaigns and more stringent energy conservation policies,” Ragadio said.
Ragadio added that a cap on non-renewable energy will compel the university to look into renewable energy sources such as solar panels, windmills and geothermal energy.
