The La Salle Debate Society and Ateneo de Manila University (AdMU) hailed Filipino debaters after their historic run at the World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC) finals on Thursday, July 15.
Dubbed as the Olympics of debate, WUDC is the world's largest debating tournament and one of the largest annual international student events globally.
This year's edition was hosted virtually by South Korea.
"The La Salle Debate Society warmly congratulates Ken Alunan and Hans Wong for being English as Second Language (ESL) Grand Finalists of Korea WUDC Championship!," La Salle Debate Society wrote in a Facebook post.
Wong was also awarded the Sadiq Ayinde Memorial Award, the award given to the Best Speaker of the ESL Grand Finals round.
"Their exceptional performance has undoubtedly brought pride to God, the university and to the country."
The Debate Society also lauded the Philippine contingent for their "unprecedented performance."
Meanwhile, AdMU congratulated Ateneans Luigi Alcañeses, David Africa, Mikko Vitug, and Ignacio Villareal who were ranked as the 8th, 7th, 4th, and 3rd Best Open Speakers, respectively.
"This historic feat is another example of Ateneo's long-standing tradition of excellence, hard work, and discipline."
Other Filipino debates who emerged victorious were Dianne Ablay from the University of the Philippines Tacloban who was named as the Public Speaking Grand champion and Charlette Inao and Verse Abellaneda of the University of the Philippines Manila who were hailed as Master Grand champions.
The Philippines made history on Wednesday, July 14, after it secured six spots in four grand final categories at the WUDC, marking its biggest contingent yet since the tournament started in 1981.
The last time the country won WUDC was in 2016, with DLSU in the ESL category, breaking a 15-year drought. Prior to that was AdMU's ESL victory in 2011 and the University of Santo Tomas' in 1999.