UP Diliman students among Asia's best debaters

MANILA, Philippines - Two Filipino students went home last week bagging top awards from one of the biggest inter-collegiate debate competitions in Asia.

Leomar Doctolero Jr. (IV - BA Political Science) and Leslie Torres (IV - BS Business Administration) of the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman reached the semifinals of the Asian British Parliamentary debate tournament held last week at the Asia Pacific University in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Doctolero was awarded the 10th best speaker while Torres bagged the 5th best speaker award. The two went up against 80 other pairs from all over Asia, including debate teams from Japan, Korea, India, Malaysia and Singapore.

Three teams from the Ateneo de Manila University also reached the quarterfinals of the tournament.

Woo Kaishan and Yi-An Shih of the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore were crowned champions of the tournament, in a final round joined by teams from the International Islamic University (Malaysia), National University of Singapore and Universiti Teknologi MARA (Malaysia).

The Asian British Parliamentary debate tournament is one of two major inter-collegiate debate tournaments in Asia, the other one being the United Asians Debating Championship. The tournaments cover a multitude of topics, including, among others, socio-legal issues, international relations, economics, gender and ethics.