THE FACULTY of Arts and Letters (AB) failed to obtain a podium finish in both the individual and group categories of the 46th Pautakan, the country’s longest-running intercollegiate quiz competition.
AB settled for ninth place out of 16 teams after falling short with only 120 points in the eliminations for the final round of the group category on Wednesday, April 8, at the St. Pier Giorgio Frassati Auditorium.
Meanwhile, Philosophy junior Jose Maria Dema-ala advanced to the finals of the individual category in fifth place, but was unable to reach the podium in the final round after scoring only 65 points, falling far behind fourth-placer Alfred M. Velayo – College of Accountancy, which had 125 points, and the Faculty of Engineering, which placed third with 135 points.
“We fell a bit short of our target, which was to reach the finals for both categories. We focused on items that were a little above the average or standards, which is, as the question setter, my fault,” Asian Studies alumni coach for the AB Team Arvin Delfin told The Flame.
Delfin added that they also needed to work on team dynamics, avoiding overthinking and “handling crash-outs properly,” which they plan to do moving forward.
“Since we don’t need to recruit next year, I think we’ll spend more time training on foundational knowledge. I noticed the questions set this year were standard for a trivia or quiz competition, so that would be my focus next year – to have a strong universal knowledge as opposed to more niche information.”
This year’s AB Pautakan team consisted of Philosophy juniors Vincent Alexis Ignacio and Dema-ala, sophomores Louren Joy Bisagar of Political Science, Tiffany Claire Olipane of Philosophy, John Alfred Pagtakhan of Legal Management, Tessa Gia Lapig of Journalism and Communication freshman Gabriel Alfonso Rodriguez.
The Faculty of Engineering defended its championship title in the group category for the fourth straight year with 210 points. It was followed by the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery’s 175 points and the Faculty of Pharmacy with 145 points.
In the individual category, College of Nursing junior Joachim Benedict del Rosario took the throne from Faculty of Medicine sophomore Paul Samson Topacio in the sudden death round, 153.5–153, to settle their tie in the clincher round. Rosario was previously beaten by Topacio in last year’s tilt.
Thomasians faced a variety of questions of differing difficulties prepared by resource persons on general information and current events, UST history, science and technology, mathematics, humanities and history.
AB maintained its now-17-year title drought in the team category, which it last won in 2009.
Launched in 1977, the annual Pautakan is organized by UST official student publication The Varsitarian. F
