14th Annual Bannuar Debate Seminar
This year’s debate seminar was held at the Pyramid of Asia Resort, Manaoag , Pangasinan on July 26-27,2008 with the theme “Redefining Passion, Challenging Solutions”.
The event was participated in by 271 high schools students and advisers coming from the nine different high schools in Regions 1 and CAR, both private and public. The following are the schools which attended the seminar: Mariano Marcos State University Laboratory High School Laoag City Campus, Mariano Marcos State University Laboratory High School Batac Campus, Philippine Science High School- Ilocos Region Campus, Regional Science High School for Region 1, University of Baguio Science High School, Pangasinan National High School, Calasiao Comprehensive National High School, Lorma Colleges Special Science High School and Monticello International College.
Registration of participants started at 7 o’clock a.m. of July 26, with MMSU Laoag City Campus being the first delegation to arrive at the venue. The registration team was headed by Shiela May Sabalburo and Malorie Joy Mones of the Finance Committee. The opening program started at 10:30 a.m. which is obviously late as to what was stated in the programme. Bannuar members presented an ethnic dance and led the singing of the national anthem choreographed by Shayne Klarisse Eclarin. UP Bannuar Chairperson Anthony Luigi de Vera delivered his opening remarks while two representatives coming from the local government of Manaoag welcomed the participants. The event’s teasers, house rules as well as the introduction of the Bannuar members and the speakers were presented to the delegates using AVPs created by the technicals committee headed by Jose Benigno Aquino. The over-all flow of the opening program was supervised by the Programs Committee headed by Vienna Grace Santos with Elfermin Mallari Jr. and Malorie Joy Mones as the masters of the ceremony.
Right after the Opening Program, Vice Chairperson for Debate, Maria Lorraine Bugayong briefed the delegates as to how the parallel sessions will be conducted. Three venues were used for separate lectures on Asian Parliamentary format, British Parliamentary Format and Oregon-Oxford Format of Debate. Mr. Raymond Vittorio and Mr. Christian Villa from the UP Debate Society handled the lectures on BP and AsPar respectively while Mr. de Vera and Mr. Mallari of UP Bannuar handled the Oregon-Oxford. In a separate venue, Professor Ramona Flores , founding Chairperson of the UP Debate Society from the Speech Communications department conducted a training for the advisers on how to train student debaters in preparation for the debate tournament. The sessions lasted for an hour. At 12:45 pm, lunch was served and the participants were given an hour to relax.
The activity resumed at 2:00 pm with a plenary session on adjudication handled by Professor Flores, this time with the student participants. This was followed by the first module of the Leaders’ Forum on Youth Lifestyle handled by Ms. Emie lee Albano from the UNFPA. An open forum was initiated after the lecture and after which, a focused group discussion was conducted per group with Bannuar members as moderators. Students were tasked to present something creative out of this discussion and were asked to write a position paper for their group pertaining to any issue on youth lifestyle. Sessions were dismissed at 6:30 pm and dinner was served at the function hall.
The whole evening of July 26 starting at 8:30 pm was devoted to the social night and acquaintance party of the student participants. In this part of the training, the students presented their creative outputs from their focused group discussion. Their outputs served as entertainment to their fellow delegates while presenting their own stand on their chosen topic. The line-up of activities for the 1st day ended with a pool party which came after the presentations and intermission numbers from the students and Bannuar members.
The 2nd day of the seminar was opened at 7:30 am. Breakfast was served and after which team match-ups were posted at the bulletin boards in preparation for the mock debates. Students were teamed-up with students from other schools during this part of the seminar. The matches in the different formats were handled by the speakers from the UP debate society, Prof. Flores and Bannuar members.
Right after the Break at 10:30 am, plenary sessions for the leaders’ forum continued which started off with the lecture of Pastor VJ Bote on the Foundations of Leadership followed by Hon. Kris Ablan who discussed about the Youth Participation on Governance. The morning sessions ended at 1:00 pm with the lunch served at the function hall. Simultaneous with the lectures, the Technical Committee prepared the certificates of the speakers and the participating schools.
At 2:00 pm, Mr. Michael Lopez clearly expounded the seminar’s theme with his anecdote as a student leader and his experiences as the Commissioner of the NYC. After his talk, an open forum was initiated where students were able to ask questions regarding the theme and Mr. Lopez’ life as a youth leader. After the forum, the presentation of the position papers of the groups followed with Ms. Albano observing. The groups’ outputs were collected by Ms. Albano and according to her, will then be forwarded to the UNFPA for documentation.
Unfortunately, there was no closing program after the forum. This is mainly because schools decided to go home right after the forum, some even left while the sessions were still on-going due to the bad weather condition. As a result, schools did not get their certificates which are in the first place, delayed.
Bannuar members commenced the said event with bonding activities and short pre-evaluation of what transpired during the seminar. The whole staff left the venue at 6 a.m. on the following day and arrived in Manila at 9 a.m.
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