Round 1: “Legalizing Same Sex Marriage in the Philippines”

AFFIRMATIVE

Necessity:
Speaker: Jeff Francis Ojero
“Love is inspiration, without any dimension, has no gender. Why
are you ashamed of being different? Man and woman are nothing but label
attached to our back. It’s us who insisted on classifying love between genders.
We make sexuality become something more important than love.”

According to the first affirmative speaker allowing same sex marriage would
enable gays and lesbian in the Philippines to marry the person they love and
would strengthen everyone rights. From a human rights perspective,
broadening civil marriage to couple of the same sex demonstrate respect and
acceptance when it comes to the fundamental rights of gender equality and
anti –violence and discrimination.

The Metropolitan Community Church a protestant has been celebrating wedding

between same sex couple since 1960s. The church considers itself a non-
denominational Christian church which performs same sex wedding for couples
regardless of their religious belief.

Beneficiary:
Speaker: Lance Adrian Almeñana
“No union is more profound than marriage for it embodies. The
highest ideal love,fidelity devotion,sacrifice, and family”.

Legalizing same sex marriage is highly beneficial to those who long for it.
Legalizing same sex marriage will only prove that there is absolute equal
treatment for all genders in all aspect. Many gay and lesbian couple around
the world is suffering from derived rights even their right to love and to
express it. They thought that it is unfair for them not having a life-long
commitment.

Denying the legalization of same sex marriage can be considered

discrimination. Why? Even though there are rights for LGBT but it is not
enough. The community or the society is not considering their own preference
and their real personality. Love is still a boundary in achieving their ideal lives
and having a strong and profound relationship or union with their partners.
Practicality:
Speaker:Ralph Jason Lastua
I am favor of same sex marriage in Philippines primarily because this is
a right of every Filipino LGBT. Marriage, I firmly believe, is a
fundamental right. Whether you are LGBT or not, marriage must be
available to those who want it. Same sex marriage is not a religious
issue, it is a human rights issue.

Marriage is about MUTUAL, LOVE, RESPECT, and SUSPECT.. Family is

always associated with children. Without children they think that it is
not a family. This is not true. Family is not created because of the
children. The essence and nature of the family is neither in blood nor
on the children, it about acceptance, belongingness, communication,
responsibility, and empowerment.
 Round 1:”Legalizing Same Sex Marraige in the Philippines”

NEGATIVE

Necessity:
Speaker:Therese Grace Sobrevega
Homosexual have suggested for years and their practice is an acceptable
alternative lifestyle. Many claim that their sexual attraction is something they
were born with. There are two different passages in the first two chapters
of Genesis to tell the purpose of God set for the marriage. The first one is
Genesis: 1:26:28. The scripture tells, “Let make a man in our marriage.
According to our likeness let them ever fish over the sea, and over the birds.
Every creeping thing that creeps on the earth “God created man in his own
image, In the image of God He Created him.;male and female, he created
them.God said to them,”Be fruitful and multiply,and fill the world,and subdue
it;and rule over the fish of the sea..And over every living thing that moves on
earth. The union of man and woman reflects the image of God by forming a
picture of the intimate relationship between Jesus Christ and his followers.

Male-male or female-female relationship cannot produce children unless

something extraordinary is done to assist them. While it is true that gay
couples can raise children and can adopt needy children, they will not however,
multiply a godly legacy when they are living in rebellion to God. In addition,
gay couples cannot model what God design for a child to experience growing
up: a complete picture of a male and female completing one another in the
marriage relationship. Children were made by God to be nurtured by the love
of a mother and a father from birth not with just a couple and that their
rights to be with their biological parents.

Beneficiary:
Speaker: Valerie Kay Abisado
A large growing body of scientific evidence indicates that the intact,
married family is best for children. If we were asked to design system for
making sure those children basic needs were met, we would probably come up
with something quite similar to the two-parent ideal. The fact that both
parents have a biological connection to the child would increase the like hood
that the parents would identify with the child and be willing to sacrifice for
that child, and it would reduce the like hood either parent would a use the
child.

Although homosexual men are likely to have children than lesbian, homosexual
men are and will be raising children. There will be even more if homosexual
civil marriage legalized. These household deny children a mother. Among other
things, mother excels providing children with emotional security in reading the
physical emotional of fonts. Obviously, they also give their daughter unique
 council as they confront the physical, emotional and social challenges
associated with puberty and adolescence.

Practicality:
Speaker:Rose Ann Gesolgon
Whenever the bible mentions marriage, it is between a male and female.
The first mention of marriage, Genesis 2:24 describes it as man leaving his
parents and being united in his wife. In passages that contain instructions
regarding marriage such as 1 Corinthians 7:2-16 and Ephesians 5:23-33, the
bible clearly identifies marriage as being between a man and woman.

However, it is a mistake to characterized laws defining marriage as the union

of man and one woman as somehow embodying purely religious viewpoint over
against a purely secular one. “The bishops said intheir amicus brief.”rather, it
is common sense reflection that homosexual relationship do not result in the
birth of children, or establish household where a child will be raised by its
birth mother and father.

In legalizing same sex marriage in the Philippines I will go to the

affirmative side. Because if we totally prohibit the legalization of same sex
marriage many Filipinos who are part of LGBT community may suffer from
many kind of violence and it seems that LGBT was not totally accepted to our
society and we are showing disrespect for fundamental rights of equality and
non discrimination. I believe that everyone have right to love the person they
loved. And if homosexual will be married it is not a sin because nobody’s
perfect.
 Round 2: “Removing the subject Panitikan, Filipino from the
Curriculum of Colleges and Universities”
AFFIRMATIVE

Necessity:
Speaker: Krian Isabel Bayona
There are three reasons why people enter college. One, make more
money. People who graduated from college make more money than those with
just a high school diploma. Two, have more opportunity. People who go to
college open up their own jobs. Many jobs these days require a college degree.
Plus, college graduates have less chance of losing their jobs. Three, make
connections. In college, student make new friends and other connections that
will be helpful when its time to get started in a career. College is an
educational institution or establishment in particular one providing higher
education or specialized professional or vocational training. It is necessary to
remove Filipino and Literature in college so that college students could focus on
the specific profession they want. It would be necessary because college is
designed to teach students they really want. College students should on how
to improve their skills so that they can deal with their dream jobs. The CHED
said it was highlighted in the SC’s decisions that the subject was removed to
avoid duplication of subjects taught elementary and high schools. The CHED
cares for the future of the students. The time spent in learning Filipino and
literature can be spent in other subjects that need time and concentration.

Beneficiary:
Speaker: Valerie Ann Silguera
In addition according to Korean Ambassador to manila Hye Min Lee
Koreans studying or working in the country now number more than 100,000.
This is a sign of the strong and growing people to people relation between
korea and the Philippines, which help promote mutual understanding between
US: Korean culture is proof that the old and the new can coexist beautifully.
This was the message during K-ribbon selection: constancy and change of
korea which show cased traditional South Korean products and modern
technology.

According to Korean cultural center of the Philippine Director on Choong Suk

the event aimed to introduce more of the traditional products that Filipinos
may not know about while at the same time boasting brand awareness in
foreign markets.
Practicality:
Speaker:Clarish Albelar
They are addressing this to the crowd that is not comfortable with our
own language, a crowd that would not even spend time to read a blog article
written in Filipino, perhaps due to its being an unfamiliar language to them.
Worse, it may even be due to being downright hostile and dismissive of a
language which is considered inferior. They write this for those who would
look down on the Filipino language as the language of the uneducated, the
jologs and the hoi polloi. It is not “sosyal”. To the “inglesirong” academics, it
is not academics enough.

Also, they write this for those who take pride in our having a comparative
advantage in English. The people would look at Filipino as a lost cause, if not a
baggage that needs to be discarded as we face the era of globalization and
ASEAN regional integration. These are the people who would argue that to
push for Filipino at this time and age would be backward step, considering that
all the other countries in the region are now encouraging their citizens to learn
how to speak English. One has just to look at the horde of Korean students
that descend on us to believe this line of argument.
 Round 2: “Removing the subject Panitikan, Filipino from the Curriculum of
Colleges and Universities”

NEGATIVE

Neccisity:
Speaker: Jan Errol Gonzales
Language is supreme power. Filipino language is a conglomeration of so
many languages with the same characteristics of early language like Latin,
Hebrew, Sanskrit and Spanish. In our daily life and practices we need our
Filipino language and we must strengthen it, have a good vision with this. I am
very aware of the removing by CHED of the Filipino language in college and
universities.
Filipino has been a big part of our life it is necessary to retain Filipino as
medium of instruction at all levels is a mandatory provision of the Philippine
Constitution( Article XIV. Section 6): The national language of the Philippines
is Filipino. The government shall take steps to initiate and sustain the use of
Filipino as a medium of official communication and as language of instruction in
the educational system. It is abominable that most government agencies use
English as their main language of official communication and most universities
are still reluctant to progressively implement the filipinization of the
curriculum.

Beneficiary:
Speaker:Yuri Pelonia
It is ironic that while August is the National Language Month, the
Commission on Higher Education issued a Memorandum deleting all nine units of
the subject Filipino in the college curriculum. CHED rationalized the move by
saying that since the k-12 primary and secondary education is now place, the
teaching of the Filipino language can be done in the k-12 curriculum. As it is,
because the Philippines is made up of 7,100 islands, there are about 170
dialects and languages spoken by Filipino. While Filipino as a subject is indeed
taught in the primary and secondary levels, if its teaching is not sustained
until college level it is bound to be forgotten by those who do not speak it as
their mother tongue. The lack of national identity and nationalism, and
absence of oneness as a people, has been the fodder on which the oligarchy of
a handful of families has thrived in this part of the globe. Thus, for over a
century now, we have been ruled by persons of the same family names. Power
has passed on their kin, generation, while the rest of the people have
remained divided by language, culture and values.
 Practicality:
Speaker:Ejay Kyle Muyco
As the third speaker of negative sides,let me emphasize some of the
points why Filipino should not be totally abolished or extracted from college
curriculum. First reason why, it’s not acceptable. 1). because it violates R.A
7104 or the Organic Act of the Filipino Language specifically Section 2.
Declaration of the policy-pursuant to the mandate of the constitution, it is
hereby declared to be policy, of the government to ensure and promote the
evolution, development and further enrichment of Filipino as the national
language of the philipines. Corollary to this statement is the provision under
R.A 232 also known as the education act of 1982 filipino language shall be
taught in all educational levels, the fight against extracting Filipino language is
actually a fight against the very core of who we as Filipinos.2) because taking
out our national language is like paving a way to a world where we no longer
define the importance of ethnicity. We are by far divided by our local dialects
but we are bounded by the essence of this language. Thus, if we remember
the history of where we came from and where we are now, we have come a
long way, and were not back to the primitive way where we don’t comprehend
with each other. Our country geographical location may cause us to easily
forget. But the soul of being a Filipino remains.

In removing Filipino subject from the curriculum of colleges and

universities I will go to negative side because Filipino is our National
Language that gives important ans sense od identity and unity among a
people of different ethnicities which the Filipino people are. Without
common language fluently spoken by all in every Islands in the
Philippines, Filipino will never have a clear sense of oneness with our
fellow Filipinos.