Ateneo de Manila University (AdMU) students were hailed as Asia’s best debaters at the United Asians Debating Championship (UADC) held in Vietnam.
Filipino students Adrian Padilla, Jaime Siy, and Mikko Vitug brought home the 2019 UADC crown for the Philippines, 6 years after the University of the Philippines Diliman won the top spot in 2013.
Team AdMU 2 emerged as the champion among 62 teams that competed in the largest annual debate competition for college students in Asia held on June 30 in Hanoi.
The three Ateneo students bested the team from Institute of Business Administration of the University of Dhaka (IBA-DU) in Bangladesh, to receive 7 out of 9 votes. Ateneo won the match on the topic of whether living a long life is good.
Another Ateneo student, Mika Filoteo of Team AdMU 1, clinched the top spot among 185 debaters and bagged the Best Speaker award. Filoteo’s teammate, Ignacio Villareal, was in 5th place.
Team AdMU 2’s Adrian Padilla and Mikko Vitug snagged 6th and 10th, respectively, for best speaker spots.
Incoming Atenean sophomore Mikko Vitug described his experience as a first-time participant in the prestigious tournament.
“I genuinely still can’t believe it. I couldn’t believe it at every stop of the tournament. Each round was an increasingly humbling experience,” Vitug posted on his social media.
With this big win of Ateneo students, AdMU joins the elite list of Asian universities who have won the UADC championship twice, together with International Islamic University Malaysia, Nanyang Technological University (Singapore), and National University of Singapore.
WATCH the proclamation of Ateneo de Manila University students as the new Asian champion debaters here and SEND your congratulations in the comments below!
READ MORE: Ateneo students win Research Challenge Championship in New York against 6000 competitors
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