ATENEO de Manila University students were the back-to-back champions in the 12th Asia-British Parliamentary Debating Championship and the 11th United Asian Debating Championship.

ABP 2020 was hosted by the Malaysian Institute for Debate and Public Speaking, while UADC 2020 was hosted by the Bangladesh Debating Council.

The APB championship team was composed of Ignacio Lorenzo Villareal and Mikko Carlo Vitug, and were joined by David Africa in the UADC Championship team.

“This championship is a good symptom for the Ateneo Debate Society that we have a growing and strengthening debate organization that is internationally competitive, and that Ateneo forms students who are globally competitive in intellectual pursuits,” Villareal said.

“Ateneo has given us a lot of academic considerations while preparing for this competition. I felt that I did not always have to choose between academics and debating, and when I do, there are always ways to compensate for it. That made me really happy to be in Ateneo,” Vitug said.

Vitug was proclaimed as ABP’s best speaker of Asia, ABP finals best speaker, UADC 8th best speaker of Asia, and UADC 4th best reply speaker of Asia.

Villareal, on the other hand, was recognized as ABP’s 2nd best speaker of Asia and UADC’s 4th best speaker of Asia.

The other members of the team are David Africa and Luigi Alcañeses as semi-finalists; and Javi Del Mundo and Quintin Chua as quarterfinalists.

Africa and Alcañeses were the 3rd and 6th best speaker of Asia, respectively, while Nicolas Lozano was named the 2nd best adjudicator of Asia after serving as EFL grand finals judge and open semifinals judge.

Meanwhile, several Ateneo students were also awarded at the UADC 2020 including Luigi Alcañeses, Maeca Pasensoy, and Irene Dela Cruz as quarterfinalists; and Julia Ocoma, Aly Barranda, and Quintin Chua as quarterfinalists.

Alcañeses was the 7th best reply speaker of Asia, while Lozano was the 3rd best adjudicator of Asia. Kenji Tate was recognized as 10th best adjudicator of Asia.

ABP 2020 and UADC 2020 are among the largest and most prestigious Asia-based inter-varsity parliamentary debate championships, attended by about 160 teams from 70 universities and 120 teams from over 90 universities, respectively.