Atheista -

August has been one crazy month. Prior to this month, all my appearances on TV have been due to coincidence – the camera panning during a PBA game, having a camera crew covering a debate event I was in etc. This month, I’ve been invited to deliberately appear on shows not once, not twice, not thrice… but four times! But then again, I’m sure you’ve taped them all and I’m still waiting for you (all 24,992 of you), to upload it to Youtube.

August is not yet over and neither is my string of TV appearances. *fingers crossed*

I’ve been invited to be at the ABS-CBN studios this Thursday to talk about the Malu Fernandez issue. Why? Well, for one, I asked Ederic Eder of Tinig.com-fame to start a writing project. Ederic, being the nice and obedient person that he is decided to honor my request and formalize the commencement of a writing project about the now-controversial journalist. Due to the obvious conflict of interest – one look at Ederic’s personal blog will expose you to tons of hearty material – THE Ederic cannot guest on Media In Focus. Hopefully, Nick of Tingog.com can make it. To be fair to Nick, he has been an outspoken and passionate pundit for this issue and he has every right to be in a show that aims to discuss the crooks of the matter.

 I also need to find an OFW who will be willing to show up on TV. Given that criteria, make that former OFW. It would help if he’s/she’s a blogger as well. Haha, good luck to me!

Here are some notes that I have in my head:

• Mainstream media (well, at least the ABS-CBN News Network) is now paying attention to what bloggers have to say. Hopefully, this would enlighten other media outfits that the opinions in the blog community is also as valid as those found in newspapers and magazines. I think this bodes well as far as the objectives of the Blog and Soul Movement is concerned. For those who want to make blogging a prevalent and relevant facet of Philippine media, I think we should embrace every chance to get the word out with open arms. Lets all be TV-appearance whores and take one (or two) for the team.
• I will try to speak for myself. I will not speak for other people in this interview. I’ll bring cue cards to remind me of those things. You never know, I might slip and spin stuff like any debater would. Haha. I’m also trying to anticipate the questions that I will probably be asked… Hmmm…
• I don’t know the schedule yet! The taping will be on Thursday afternoon, but I don’t know when it will be shown.

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With a split decision of 2-1, the duo of Ryan Sebolino and Dino de Leon from De Lasalle University beat the pair from University of Baguio to advance to the quarterfinals of the Square Off! Debate Championships. DLSU entered the tournament as the fourth seed compared to UB who is seeded thirteenth out the sixteen debate institutions who chose to participate in the competition. Dino de Leon, DLSU’s veteran debater for six years running, was chosen as the Texter’s Choice and the unanimous pick by the adjudicators as the Best Speaker for the round.

With the win, DLSU now is awaiting the winner of the round between University of the Philippines Baguio and Xavier University . Those two schools will be squaring off next week as the fifth and twelfth seeded teams, respectively. The debaters from Taft are now in the same league of four with the other schools who secured a quarterfinals slot in the past weeks – Ateneo de Manila University, Polytechnic University of the Philippines and the University of the Philippines Diliman.

The University of Baguio is now out of the running for getting the competition’s top prize of a cash reward equal to the price of the registration fee for the 2008 Assumption University Worlds in Bangkok, Thailand (roughly $1100). The University of Santo Tomas, Western Mindanao State University and Mindanao State University – Marawi City have likewise been eliminated in the first three rounds of debates.

The three adjudicators for the round were Michael Chua (the chair adjudicator) from UP Diliman, Glen Tuason from Ateneo Law School and Benj Espina from UP Manila. Benj Espina dissented and decided to give the round to the University of Baguio.

Click the image to look at the draw.

Tentative schedule:

August 29 – UP Baguio vs Xavier University

September 5 – UP Manila vs Ateneo de Zamboanga Univeristy

September 12 – Ateneo de Davao University vs Lyceum of the Philippines

September 19 – San Beda College vs College of Saint Benilde

THE ABS-CBN NEWS CHANNEL’S SQUARE OFF AIRS WEDNESDAY NIGHTS AT 8PM. Yes, it’s LIVE.

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Yes, NBN. You’re dead to me.

Thanks in large part to Typhoon Sepat (Egay to those with a heightened sense of nationalism), my much-anticipated, much-talked-about (wahaha) August 20 NBN taping for some debate show on the nation’s most watched network is no longer feasible due to conflicts in schedule.

For the benefit of the non-students (and those reading this abroad), classes have been canceled since Wednesday. The final examination for my first rotation – Internal Medicine – was initially move to Saturday morning. Due to another announcement on the suspension of classes today, the department has no choice but to give the exam on Monday morning (August 20). This was supposedly a holiday to commemorate the 24th year anniversary of Ninoy Aquino’s assassination. Of course, the real date of the anniversary is the 21st but being veterans of the Gloria prerogative to change the day of holidays from the actual date of occurrence, no one seems to question this anymore. Incidentally, our role for the debate would’ve been to protect the idea of this prerogative as a justified desecration.

The exam is 10AM to 12NN.

The call time for the debate is 12NN.

NBN’s studios are in Quezon City.

So clearly, even with the use of a helicopter, I wouldn’t make it in time for the taping.

Hold your horses! The exam got moved to Tuesday! It’s a go!

Oh well.

The silver lining for this of course is that I still get to be on Square Off this Wednesday. It’s going to be De Lasalle squaring off against University of Baguio for a chance to join the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Ateneo de Manila University and University of the Philippines Diliman in the quarterfinals.

Square Off airs LIVE every Wednesday night at 8.

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In line with my goal of hosting Wowowee by years end, I have once again committed to another debate-related TV appearance. After adjudicating for ANC’s Square Off! last week, I’ll be debating against students from De Lasalle University on Monday (August 20). Apparently, we’ll be doing two debates because they want to shoot for two episodes. Does this mean we have to wear different sets of clothes for the two debates? Darn. We all know that NBN4 is the most watched channel in the country according to the ratings and they’ll definitely notice if I use the same clothes for two episodes.

Unlike Square Off!, the NBN show will not be live. I still don’t know when it’s going to be shown.

We’re going to debate on motions regarding this whole make-Mondays-holidays-shtick (lame…lame…) and medical field-related motion (yay!). I still don’t know which side we’re going to take and we’re going to be using the utterly icky Oregon-Oxford format. I have never debated Or-Ox! Haha. I think I’m going with Lee and a still unnamed debater.

And oh, this Wednesday, I’ll be adjudicating for Square Off! again! It’s a round between DLSU and University of Baguio. It will be shown live from 8 PM to 9 PM at ANC.

So there, three TV appearances in a span of three days! Willie better watch his back!

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So my schedule will be like this next week:

August 20 – NBN for 2 debates

August 21 – The Mrs. Fields’ event at The Manila Pavilion

August 22 – SQUARE OFF! WATCH ME! LOL

August 23 – Taste Asia @ Mall of Asia

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I’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate the UP College of Medicine Class of 2007 for their stellar performance in the just concluded Medical Boards! Special kudos go out to the Debater Doctors! Good job Aloy, Pam and Adrian!

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The third round for ABS-CBN News Channel’s Square Off! aired live last night. Second seed University of Philippines Diliman squared off against fifteenth seed Mindanao State University – Marawi City to determine the next quarterfinalist. Diliman was represented by Melissa Sayoc and PIDC finalist Claire Jiao. After almost half an hour of intense debating on the topic of the efficacy of the party list system, the speakers from Quezon City emerged victorious.

As you can see, UP Diliman will now await the winner of the round between Ateneo de Davao and Lyceum of the Philippines.

During the first octofinals match, Ateneo de Manila won over the Western Mindanao State. They are now awaiting the survivor of the match between San Beda and College of Saint Benilde.

In the second round, the Polytechnic University of the Philippines beat the University of Santo Tomas. They will square off against the winner of the round between UP Manila and Ateneo de Zamboanga in the quarterfinals.

Next week, fourth seed De Lasalle University will face the thirteenth seed University of Baguio. The winner of that round will face either UP Baguio or Xavier University.

The champion will receive an all-expenses paid trip to the 2008 Worlds Universities Debate Championships in Bangkok, Thailand to be held later this year.

SQUARE OFF AIRS LIVE EVERY WEDNESDAY NIGHT 8 TO 9 PM!

I’ll be on TV again next week to adjudicate Lasalle vs University of Baguio. 

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Posing next to the Studio 6 sign. I was obviously taking instructions for this shot. This was shot after the show. While the debaters were asking for points of information from the Chair Adjudicator, I was busy fooling around. They did ask for my comments eventually.

The adjudicators were huddled up in a room in the office complex. This was post-make-up. Yes, we had to wear make-up. Wahaha

These pictures were taken by Patricia Evangelista and are being posted on this blog without her consent. Thank you for taking great shots Patricia. :p See you next time.

 And yes, I’m once again appealing to the generous people of the blogosphere to help me go to the World Universities Debate Championship. Thank you to those who have pledged their support. HELP ME!!!

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