UPDS Invades Los Baņos Claire Jiao | September 2006
The UP Debate Society dominated the 1st UP System-Wide Debate Intervarsities held by UP Los Baņos, last September 15 to 17. All ten teams of the Diliman contingent broke into the top 16 after five elimination rounds. However, only the top four teams could advance to the finals series because of the break cap policy of the tournament.
UPD B, composed of Nicolo Cabrera and Inna Gacad, broke 1st overall and reached until the semifinals of the competition. Cabrera and Gacad were tied for 2nd Best Speaker overall. Claire Jiao and Joan Caccam were UPD A. They broke 2nd overall, Jiao was 5th Best Speaker while Caccam was 1st Best Speaker. Jowee Atienza and Richard Heydarian of UPD I were finalists of the tournament. Heydarian also bagged the award for 7th Best Speaker.UPD C, composed of Raymund Vitorio and Sam Tirthdas, was the last team to complete the four slots allotted to Diliman. The new members reached the semifinals in their first-ever tournament. Both speakers were tied for 9th Best Speaker.
On the motion that THW decriminalize libel, the teams were as follows: Los Baņos C in Opening Government, Diliman I in Opening Opposition, Diliman A in Closing Government and Oblation A in Closing Opposition. After a lengthy discussion, the adjudication panel gave the victory to CO, composed of Robin Lucas and Adrian Rabe.
Other speaker citations went to Jonjon Avila, 9th Best Speaker and Richard Beltran, 8th Best Speaker. Moreover, nine out of ten Diliman adjudicators broke into the Finals series. The top-ranked were Jezrel Magpantay, BJ Guerrero, Mafie Tanyag and Lynette Arreola as 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th respectively.
