Dear all,
Imagine a place where you couldn’t wear short skirts, tank tops or your beloved Havaianas. A place where you had to be highly disciplined and keep your voice down, wake up early and not wander around.Now imagine that place as the same place where you’d have to stand in front of random strangers and speak for seven minutes about a topic few people have ever heard of.
That was exactly the situation participants of the 9th National Debate Championship, held at the grounds of the Philippine Military Academy in Baguio City, found themselves in.The National Debate Championships are held every October and attracts debaters from all over the country. From universities in Luzon to other universities in Visayas and Mindanao, these students make time during their precious semester break to troop to the host colleges.
And every year, all the participating universities and colleges prepare themselves for the tournament by training their debaters and adjudicators (the participants who judge debate, students like us) and reading magazines and newspapers to be updated on current issues as much as possible.For us in the UP Diliman contingent, this NDC was a chance to defend our 2006 championship. My teammate Diana and I were training as hard as we could because this was our last NDC as undergraduates.
What was really different with this year’s NDC was the fact that, well, it was held in PMA. Most of us had never been in the company of so many alpha males all at once, and that was already different. A friend of mine actually said, “They’re hot in uniform especially when they’re in groups.”
Okay, seriously now, the biggest difference was the efficiency and organization of the event. Military training and discipline definitely permeated the whole tournament. The very first day (registration), we had to wait for our whole contingent to be completed before we could even get our IDs taken, which took us about two hours.Lesson learned: Be on time. Something that we had to take into heart or else we’d be left behind by the buses provided by PMA for the trip to Fort del Pilar.
Bonding activities
Before the competition formally started, the organizers set up different activities to foster camaraderie. While most of us would rather just sit and watch or go to the ukay-ukay, the team-building activities looked fun, so some people joined in.We had dinner with the cadets in their mess hall. They told us how difficult life was for them. While they enjoyed training and studying in one of the best schools in the country, they were also aware that they had to give up their lives for the country if needed. Of course, they kept the banter light so the participants won’t leave dinner feeling sad.
The cadets also did a fashion show of all the uniforms they wore (minus the sleeping garb, which would have been more fun to see). This, of course, elicited more squealing from the girls.Then they surprised us by holding a bonfire in honor of the participants. Our cadet escort, Cdt. Ann Sinson, told us the organizers gave up part of their allowance in order to fund the activities. A cadet band played music while we stared at the fire burning in the middle of Borromeo Field.
All the activities were fun, but there was one thing people were eager for: the debates. This year, the topics ranged from the question of West Bank autonomy to Manny Pacquiao’s impact on Philippine culture.Any debater knows that merely knowing issues and having the logic to argue them through is not enough. There’s also this thing called angas factor that can be achieved through fashion. How exactly does fashion have a hand in all of this?
Well, take me, for instance. On the first day, I went to the rounds wearing my hip-length denim jacket and an asymmetrical top on top of my bootleg jeans and boots. It was enough to make people sit up and notice. Of course, the right “costume,” if you will, could show off your all-important sense of confidence while you delivered your speech. It was an excuse to wear your hottest clothes and give yourself a dose of self-assurance. See, debaters aren’t always serious.
Debating in NDC is a chance for college students to test their mettle when it comes to various issues. Annalyn Avila, a three-year debater and first-time adjudicator in the Nationals from UCW, noted that debaters, especially those coming from provincial schools, had shown marked improvement. Even previous high-school debaters like Carlo Flores of UP Diliman found NDC particularly challenging. “In college, lahat nangangagat. It’s not like high school where it was easy to beat someone. Here there are no sure victories,” he said.
Good experience
For me, the event turned out to be a good experience even if my team did not make it to the Top 32. The fact that I believed in the words I was saying and that I was giving some of the best speeches of my life was enough. Being able to persuade people with your words was an awesome feeling. And it didn’t hurt that I had a fantastic partner as well.
More, the championships were also a means for us to make friends with those from other contingents. One of the most memorable events was the Cadet Hop. Normally, debaters would party like crazy during the Break Night Party or when they find they had scored high enough to get to the finals. This time, during the Cadet Hop, we were required to wear formal clothes. Cadets were supposed to ask people to dance with them, and all that formal stuff. But we found ourselves storming the dance floor once the Pussycat Dolls started blaring from the speakers.
Being at PMA was definitely an experience. On one hand, we had to adjust to the strict rules of the place. On the other hand, we also felt very honored to be welcomed and hosted by these cadets, who, as PMA Superintendent Maj. Gen. Leopoldo Maligalig said, are stripped of their freedoms inside the institution (like freedom of speech and freedom to wear whatever they wanted) in order for students in other universities to practice theirs.
For that, we say thank you, PMA, for allowing us to practice the greatest freedom we know, the freedom to argue and say what’s on our mind.Ateneo once again bagged the championship, beating two UP Diliman teams that gave them a hell of a fight. NDC was a memorable event, never mind if short skirts were out of the picture.
Regards,
Rashedul Hasan Stalin
Source: http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/
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