The first Davao Intervasity – Asians commenced last January 16 at the Finster Auditorium, headed by the Ateneo Debate Varisty (ADV) in partnership with the 2nd year Business and Management Student Executive Council.

The event is a 3-day debate competition – from January 16 to 18, between high school students, college students, and graduates coming from various places in Mindanao and Luzon. Two of its participants, who are students from University of Santo Tomas, even flew from Manila to join the contest.

The aim of this event is to promote debating to the schools in Davao and to expose the Davao debaters to debaters coming from different regions and schools.

“In the debate scene right now, most Davao schools don’t have debate clubs and they don’t really participate in regional tournaments. So, we want to expose them to debates,” Trisha Aliya Dulanas, ADV President, said.

The participants had their Debate and Adjudication Seminar during the first day which was presided by the Adjudication Core. This was followed by a demo debate and Adjudication Test.
On the second day, they will be having their elimination rounds. Qualified teams will proceed to the Semi-quarters while top high school teams will immediately have their semi-finals due to their small number.

The third day was allocated for the high school semi-finals and open quarterfinals. Winning teams will have their Open Semi-Finals, then their Championship afterwards. High school teams will also have their High school finals later that day.

“This is very challenging for us because as we have seen in the demo debate, they seem very intimidating to us. This is a fight of skills and talents although it is a sport. So it is very challenging for us, but we take the challenge,” Nikki Delgado, a high school participant from Davao Christian High School, said.