Story By Leanna Sto. Domingo; Photos By Rachel Mae De Gracia
Five long months of planning and preparation resulted into a face-to-face championship battle between Team OLPH and Team OLA during the Social Science Asian Parliamentary Debate Series 2022-2023. Team OLA, who represented the Humanities and Social Sciences Strand (HUMSS), became the champions after defending the government side on the motion: “The Party-list System in the Philippines should be abolished.”
The members of the winning team included Samantha Eve Ruth Costanilla (Prime Minister), Ive James Fabricante (Deputy Prime Minister) and Karl Anthony Osano (Whip). With the support of their researchers, they exemplified teamwork that led to a triumphant performance. Osano won Best Speaker while the Opposition Side’s Jawn Phillip Joy Alvarez of Team OLPH won the Best Debater.
The CST-R Cultural Center served as debate arena last March 25, 2023.
Asian Parliamentary Debate Structure
The series of debates for the Senior High School Department began as a performance task for Grade 11, First Semester subjects such as Oral Communication; Understanding Culture, Society & Politics; Earth & Life Science, among others. The tournament adopted the Asian Parliamentary Debate format. This format focuses on “manner, matter and method” as criteria for adjudication.
As preparation, all Grade 11 students attended the orientation and short training last November 7, 2022 by Georgene Quilaton-Tambiga, CST-R communication officer and an alumna of the University of the Philippines Visayas Debate Society.
However, to facilitate the Thomasians’ transition from virtual outputs into face-to-face performance tasks, this year’s debate series introduced rule modifications that allowed the participants a research period and a given set of motions that could be chosen during the debate proper.
The Semis
Last March 17, 2023, the representative teams of each Grade 11 section squared off in the semi finals.
Team OLMC (Government) faced Team OLPH (Opposition) in the first semi final match and they resolved the motion: “The subject Filipino will be removed in the college curriculum.”
“Isn’t it a bit contradicting that we are more fluent in English rather than [in] our own language?” Arwen Ryzel Sayat, the Leader of the Opposition team, punctuated with two minutes left to spare during her constructive and rebuttal.
Team OLPH won the round.
The second match was between Team OLA (Government) and Team OLL 1 (Opposition). They debated the long and controversial issue of the constitutionality of the joint exploration and development of the West Philippine Sea between the Philippines and China. Team OLA prevailed.
The last semi final match was played between Team OLC (Government) and Team OLL 2 (Opposition). The motion was: “Death Penalty be Reinstated in the Philippines.”
In a tight and classic match between morality and ethics, Team OLC or the Government won the debate.
The Quarter Finals
Teams OLA, OLL 2, OLMC and OLPH were the quarter finalists. Team OLPH prevailed over OLMC while OLA prevailed over OLL 2.
Ms. Maureen Dela Torre, Ms. Rachel Muelle and Tambiga sat as panel of adjudicators. Student-adjudicators Dastel Jude Broce and Luis Wayne Villaban, both of section OLMC, joined the teachers on the panel. The two provided insights and shared their learning points particularly during the final match that featured hard-to-navigate technicalities and a definitional challenge.
The Social Science Department served as organizers and implementors of the debate series. During the finals, Ms. Marinell Ocampo, school principal, encouraged Thomasians to learn from debate as a method and from the speeches in the formation of public opinion and reflection. Established in 2016, the Senior High School Asian Parliamentary Debate, saw a hiatus during the distance learning years but is now back in full swing.
