XAVERIAN'S CORNER

Xavier Debate Team Hosts 2nd IDeA Invitational
Stanly Sy (H2C), Xavier Debater

Posted Tuesday, 13-Dec-2005 1:03 PM

      November 19-20, 2005 saw the Xavier Debate Team (XDT) host a debate tournament - the 2nd Invitational of the Interscholastic Debate Association of Metro Manila or IDeA - at the Xavier Multi-Purpose Hall.

      The debates were held simultaneously in the H1 and H2 classrooms. Xavier alumnus Carl Ng was the chief adjudicator for the tournament and it was supervised by XDT moderator, Kip Oebanda, XDT president, Jonathan Loh (H4G), and XDT PRO and IDeA Council Representative, Carlo Fornier (H4G).

      IDeA 2 started at 8:30 am, as scheduled, and ended at 6:30 pm on the first day of the tournament, and 5:30 pm on the second day. Because of the promptness and systematic way it was run, the Xaverians reaped good comments from fellow debaters and respected adjudicators as well as members of the IDeA Council.

      Around 50 teams competed in the tournament, with debaters coming from Ateneo de Manila High School, Miriam College High School, Immaculate Conception Academy, Woodrose, Claret, University of Santo Tomas High School, and more. Some of the sixteen teams that qualified for the top rounds held on the second day were teams from ADMU, ICA , MCHS, CSA and Philippine Science High School.

      The finals saw teams coming from MCHS and ADMU in the final four wherein both teams coming from MCHS were in the Government’s (PRO) side and both teams coming from ADMU were in the Opposition’s (CON) side. It was an intense debate filled with heated arguments and strong information coming from all four sides as the audience witnessed a battle of genders and neighboring schools. In the end, the team of Paolo Salapantan and James Soriano of ADMU C (Closing Opposition) emerged as the champions of IDeA 2.

      Having hosted the 2nd Invitational of IDeA for this school year, and doing so successfully, the XDT received seven points from the IDeA Council for all four of its teams. This will be added to the points that XDT has earned in the first Invitational wherein two teams scored seven points and two teams scored four points. These points are accumulated from all three invitationals wherein the top sixteen teams with the most number of points will be able to qualify for the IDeA Grand Finals Debate Competition to be held on March 2006.

     XDT hopes that this will be a good stepping stone for its members in their endeavor to duplicate the effort and rewards won by the team of Carlos Aro and John So (both from Batch ’04) who emerged as IDeA Grand Champions in IDeA Grands 2004. XDT currently has two teams with 14 points and two teams with 11 points.

      Moreover, XDT hopes to be able to win more matches and score more points in their endeavor to qualify for the IDeA Grands as it prepares to compete in the 3rd Invitational to be held in Woodrose on January 28-29, 2006.

      Let us hope that the XDT will continue to let their light shine and train, strive, as well as debate, harder to bring pride and glory for our alma mater. Luceat Lux!

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