The Ateneo Debate Congress-Senior High School (ADC-SHS), the debating society of the Ateneo de Zamboanga University SHS unit, dominated the 11th Crimson Debate Cup or CDC, held November 12-13 at the Western Mindanao State University and KCC Mall de Zamboanga.
The two-day affair was hosted by WMSU and culminated with ADC-SHS taking back the CDC Trophy in a repeat win as well as garnering the majority of the Best Speaker awards in the competition.
ADC-SHS’s performance carried the three teams all the way to the Grand Finals. AdZU-SHS A, consisting of Hans Xavier Wong and Najwa Uñga, won the Finals, with Wong being declared the Finals Best Speaker. Other ADC-SHS teams in the Grand Finals include AdZU-SHS B, comprising Maeca Pansensoy and Aisha Said, and AdZU-SHS H, composed of Louise Gabrielle Talip and Jose Manuel Gomez. Another ADC-SHS team, AdZU-SHS G (Therese Nyah Sampang and Gerald Ace Wee), also made it to the semifinals, rounding out the four-team limit that can represent an institution past the elimination rounds. Two other ADC-SHS teams scored high enough to break, but could not compete due to the institutional cap; these were AdZU-SHS C (Francis Maquiso and Casey del Rosario) and AdZU-SHS G (Miguel Saavedra and Christian Vinci Cariño).
ADC-SHS members also bagged several Best Speaker Awards. Pansensoy was declared the Tournament Best Speaker, having racked the highest number of speaker points throughout the tournament. Following her are Wong and Uñga, tied at 3rd Best Speaker; Said, at 6th Best Speaker; Gomez, at 9th Best Speaker; and Talip and Sampang, tied at 10th Best Speaker.
Crimson Debate Cup is hosted annually by Western Mindanao State University, and is the largest debate competition for high school students in Zamboanga City. Around 80 teams were fielded in four elimination rounds before 16 teams “broke” through (i.e. made it) to the Open Competition, the main competition of CDC, and 8 teams “broke” to the Legacy Cup, exclusively for novice debaters. The CDC trophy is among the most coveted for Zamboanga City debate societies. Joshua Rommel Vargas (SHS correspondent)
