PIDC 2007 a Success for UPDS Participants and Organizers
Jessica Hermosa | April 2007
The UP Debate Society reaped numerous achievements in the recently concluded Philippine Inter-collegiate Debating Championship 2007: The Ninoy Aquino Cup. Anna Arcellana (I-Bio), Nicolo Cabrera (IV-BS Psych), and Claire Jiao (II-BA Journ) of UPD-A made it to the finals round of the Asian Parliamentary format tournament. They won runner-up as the affirmative side debating on the motion this house believes that the youthfs political maturity is ill-served by their generationfs representatives in print media. Cabrera was awarded for being the 2nd Best Speaker, Jiao for being the 4th Best Speaker, and Sabrina-Laya Gacad for 7th Best Speaker, besting more than 100 other debaters.
It was AdMU-A however, composed of Sharmila Parmanand, Leloy Claudio, and Miko Biscocho, who won the championship title by a 5-2 vote from the adjudication panel. Nevertheless, UPDSf strong showing couldnft be matched by any other institution---it had the most teams, 5 out of 6, that qualified for the octofinals. These UPDS teams ranked among the upper half of the top 16 qualifiers, in a tournament attended by 40 teams from 19 universities and colleges across the Philippines.
Meanwhile, UPD-B, composed of Richard Heydarian (III ? BA Pol Sci), Joan Caccam (IV ? BA Pol Sci), and Aaron Chan (I ? BS Bio) made it to the semifinals. UPD-D composed of Richard Beltran (II - BA Pol Sci), Sabrina Gacad (III - BS Econ), and Kenneth Cardenas (III - BA Socio) and UPD-E, composed of Jonjon Avila (II - BA Speech Comm), Lester Yupingkun (II - BS Sports Sci), Jeross Aguilar (II - BA Psych) made it to the quarterfinals, while Joanne Atienza (III - BS Nutri), Katherine Diaz (III - BA PolSci), and Alvin Camba (II - BA History) UPD-C finished off as octofinalists.
Several UPDS adjudicators were recognized as well: Diana Dy (III - BA Psych) was a quarterfinalist adjudicator, while Joseph Nash (I - BS Business Econ), Florianne Jimenez (I - BA Comp Lit), and Jennie Uy (I - BA Speech Comm) were octofinalist adjudicators.
These achievements came on top of UPDSf successful organization of the 4-day tournament in which was held in Luisita, Tarlac and co-presented with the Tarlac Conventions and Visitors Bureau, the North Philippines Visitors Bureau, and the Benigno S. Aquino Foundation. With the theme Filipino Minds, Global Perspectives, the tournament was hosted by the UP Debate Society in line with its continuing mission of nurturing debating and critical thinking skills among the youth.
