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.

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.”

As the opposition, ADMU B argued that putting a cap on developing countries’ electricity derived from non-renewable resources was 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.

A different standpoint

The theme of this year’s tournament was “Reframing Perspectives,” which, according to Agoncillo, asked the participants to challenge the way they normally viewed the world.

Agoncillo explained that although this year’s theme was already considered a necessary mindset in debating, it was also about attempting to change the perspectives of non-debaters.

“In today’s world, we tend to get caught up in what the media, religion, or the government tells us that we forget that we shouldn’t always take things to be true,” he said.

“To reframe perspectives is to be more critical of things we take for granted,” Agoncillo added.