Ateneo De Manila’s Ignacio Villareal, Mikko Vitug, David Africa, and Luigi Alcaneses received 3rd, 4th, 7th, and 8th Best Speaker Awards respectively under the Open Category. De La Salle University’s Hans Wong received the Sadiq Ayinde Memorial Award, and Dianne Ablay from UP Tacloban was titled Grand Champion of the Public Speaking Category.
The World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC) serves as the world’s largest annual debating competition, and one of the largest annual student events held on an international scale. The event was first organized in 1981 and follows the British Parliamentary format of debating.
This marks the first time that the Philippines has reached the Open Grand Finals and the first time since 2004 for an Asian Institution to reach the Open Grand Finals.
Among the other schools that entered the Finals is UP Manila under the Charles Kennedy Master’s Cup, De La Salle University, and University of the Philippines Los Banos advancing all the way to the ESL (English as Second Language) Grand Finals. The University of Santo Tomas had also advanced past the elimination rounds and proceeded up until the ESL Quarterfinals.
This year’s WUDC was held online via Zoom and was hosted by Debate Korea. You can watch the Grand Finals for both the ESL and the Open Category through their channel!
━━ Photo From Luigi Alcaneses
