AFTER 11 years of title drought, the Faculty of Arts and Letters Debate Parliament (ABDP) brought home the championship in this year’s Dialectics, the university-wide debate competition organized by the Thomasian Debaters Council (TDC).
The team composed of Communication Arts (CA) senior Miguel Aguado, Philosophy senior John Martin Ungria, and English Language Studies (ELS) junior Faye Margarette De Leon who was hailed as finals best speaker, emerged as Dialectics grand champion.
“It really feels surreal. Up until now, I can’t believe that we broke the 11-year drought and achieved something memorable for the whole parliament, which is an ABDP [versus] ABDP grand finals,” De Leon said in an online exchange.
De Leon added that it was the first time both teams from ABDP compete for finals round. “So either way, the Dialectics 2018 championship cup will end up in AB. For us, that’s already a win, not just for ABDP but also for the whole of AB.”
The group of Philosophy senior Marc Abella and Political Science juniors Peter Joart Ralla and Winston Francis Illustre were the grand finalists.
Journalism senior Angeliko Jo Valera, Legal Management junior Nikki Elardo, and History junior Bianca Ysabella Antonio went home as semifinalists.
Former ABDP Prime Minister and Behavioral Science alumna Sophia Salonga was awarded overall best adjudicator anew. Other recipients of special awards were Asian Studies (ASN) Alumnus Rob Lim and CA junior April Tolentino, who were named as fourth and fifth best adjudicator, respectively.
The first best speaker award went to ELS junior Edward Dunhill Chico while Valera bagged the sixth best speaker award.
ASN senior Lorraine Sajorda, together with Lim and Salonga, went home as master’s cup finalists.
TDC is the official debate varsity of the University of Santo Tomas. Dialectics was held at the Faculty of Civil Law lobby on April 15 and 22. F
