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Mr. Peterson Poon and Mr. Evan Chen from the Xavier High School debate team triumphed during the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Grand Debate Finals held last November 10, 2007 at the Great Eastern Hotel in Quezon City. Mr. Poon was also awarded Best Speaker of the tournament. The KAS Grand Debate Finals, organized in conjunction with the Ateneo Debate Society, was the culminating event of a 4-day debating tournament, the Philippine Schools Debate Championship (PSDC), which was earlier launched last November 7, 2007 with the annual KAS Issue Forum featuring former Congressman Gilbert Remulla from the 2nd district of Cavite. The PSDC remains as the biggest High School Debate tournament in the country today. 103 debate teams participated in the tournament.

This year’s grand debate finals tournament, held after 3 days of rigorous British Parliamentary debate competitions between over 300 high school students from different schools, featured finalist teams from Xavier School, Ateneo de Manila, and Miriam College. The teams debated on whether or not it would be in the national interest to compel executive officials to testify in Congressional inquiries in aid of legislation—which sought to review the controversial Executive Order (E.O.) 464 in which “all heads of departments of the Executive Branch of the government shall secure the consent of the President prior to appearing before either House of Congress.”

The evening also featured a keynote speech from Fr. Bienvenido Nebres, president of the Ateneo de Manila University, who praised efforts to engage the youth to awareness regarding the relevant issues of our time, and to undertake roles of leadership.

The grand debate is part of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation’s on-going support for the Ateneo Debate Education Program, which seeks to train the youth in methods of debate to increase the youth’s awareness regarding today’s current issues.