The CVC Square off Law Debates. (Part 1)

THE BEGINING

A leap of faith

"Francis you'll part of our debate team sa ANC!" said Hazel on June 24 ,2008. "Kucil will tell you more."


Then and there, without pomp or heraldry I was initiated into the world of varsity debate.


The day before the Arellano Law Forensic Guild was supposed to have a meeting to decide who we were going to send.


The weekend before I was standing in front of the Forensic having my try-outs answering questions like "Are you a Republican or a Democrat?", "Is Bush's invasion of Iraq justified?" and my personal favorite that day "So you think the government should not negotiate with terrorists? even if they threaten to kill Ces Drillon?"

BTW my answer to that last one: Yes, they shouldn't negotiate, you're just making thier criminal act pay. It's going to encourge them to keep kiddnapping journalists knowing that they will get paid for it. Let them behead her for all I care may be that will prevent others like her from dealing with these people for a scoop.

Appologies to Ces, but if you play with fire don't expect me to feel sorry for you if u get burned.

BBTW I liked the try-outs becaue I learned that I could still rely on my background in international law and I could still think on my feet. It boosted my self-confidence.

Being a bit of a pessimist, and not hearing from Hazel till the middle of the week, I expected the worst, ala; "I'm sorry Francis but we have decided not to admit you into the Arellano Law Forensic Guild " Little did I know that I was about to be thrown from the pan into the flames.

For the record I'd been in school for just 3 days when I "try-ed out" following a hiatus of almost 1 year. I was still having doubts if (assuming I ever had one)I still had my "Legal mind". Adjustment was the name of the game. Competing against the best law schools in the Philippines was the last thing on my mind.

Obviously I wanted to beg out of that commitment. I was grossly inexperienced. I wasn't ready! In fact here is a list of all the debates I ever joined:

In AHS

1. Class debate (4M) for our 4th year english class, Librt {I think it was something about abortion) c. 2001. I lost because our teacher hates me :P (bitter)
2. Class debate (4M) for our 4th year english class, Librt (I don't remember) c. 2002. My team won and I was best speaker. (I had my revenge!)

But then remember this was in High School. as you all know high school debates tend to degenerate into screaming matches where you try to browbeat the opponent into conceding that you're right and they're wrong.

In Loyola Schools

1. Media Law Class Debate, Librt: (Must have been something about media law) October 2005. It was Jonathan, Isda and me against 3 intelligent girls who all eventually went to law school. Needless to say they turned us inside out!!!

In ALS

1. Hamon interyear Debate, sponsored by what was then known as the St. Thomas Moore Debate Society, Librt: Elective Officials should have additional requirments for holding office. It was Bubba, Angel and me against a trio of vetran 3rd year law debaters from STM. The result? Despite Angel Aguinaldo's evident skill and our team's fighting spirit, it was a gala massacre. The third years were citing laws and jurisprudence we had never even dreamed off.

If any of you remember the mess I made that day did you think I could ever become a debater?

See, so few that I remember all of them. 1 win 3 losses 25% and my last win
came over 6 years ago!!! LOL!

To my credit ASIL trained me to be a mooter, and I believe they did a good job, but moot court and debate are completely different animals. Plus I worked in a couple of call centers (yeah, yeah I worked in a call center so what!?! does that make me any less of a human being?)

But my only real advantage was that my Father talks to me in English and Tagalog is my second language (TSL :P )

I am (relatively) young and (was) inexperienced. There was no way I was the best choice for that team. I had to talk (debate?) my way out of this.

But when I met Kucil in person (For the second time although IMHO it counts as first since our first meeting was during the try outs) she was so convincing and determined that I didn't have the heart to refuse. No wonder she's such as successful medrep.

I knew nothing! Kucil and Warren would have to teach me everything from the ground up. I think that helped me a lot because I had no ego going into the contest. I accepted thier corrections and suggestions with becoming humility because they knew better and I was but a learner.

Square-Off would be my OJT. Great my OJT was a live fire exercise with real live opponents who shot back and on live Television to boot.

I had less than a week to learn enough about my new trade to at least look convincing as a debater.

Well, Forensic was taking a huge leap of faith. They did not know, or bother to ask, how utterly inexperienced I was and how dismal my previous debating experiences were. I guess a leap of faith deserves another. Like I said on ANC "I'm a freshman, but if they my team thinks I'm ready then I must be!"

Later I found out that Hazel and Kiev were sent to compete at Teleradio event on NBN. It was also Kiev's first time to debate in law school. Some how that made me feel a lot better about myself co'z I wasn't alone.

Next: San Sebastian vs. Arellano: the fairy tale begins