by Micah Marie F. Naadat
Hailed as the overall champion of the first National Conflicts of Law, San Beda University-College of Law (SBU-COL) bested 23 other law schools across the country during the annual sports competition organized by the Association of Law Students of the Philippines (ALSP).
SBU-COL clinched the top spot in online games Valorant, which was represented by Vincent Capulong of section 2J, Gabriel Chua of 3G, Marlo Manuel of 2E, Sheila Martinez of 1J, Marco Mercado of 2J, Mark Reyes of 3B, and Gionelle Tribiana of 1L, and Mobile Legends, which was represented by Elliel Alonzo of 3H, Andrew Carandang of 1I, Nico Lapuz of 2F, Jed Paul Naval of 2D, Dennis Panoy of 2I, and Sinjin Taloma of 3F.
Meanwhile, the College snatched the second and the third spots in chess, represented by Christine Umadhay of 2I, and Dota II, played by Ramon Bautista of 2F, Armand Commandante of 2C, Jio Labadnoy of 1G, Jeric Mamucud of 2S, Paolo Ray Martinez of 2C, and Adrian Ortega of 2C, respectively.
SBU-COL was also a finalist in the extemporaneous speech event, as represented by Silver Hiponia of 1L.
Last December 4, 10 participating law schools, including SBU-COL, demanded accountability on matters pertaining to scheduling of games and its rules and regulations, accounting concerns, overall demeanor, among others.
In a joint statement, the law schools called for transparency on ALSP’s financial report and public apology for the various problems and issues that arose during the said event.
“We would like to put emphasis on the lack of professionalism on the part of the organizers with respect to how they conducted themselves in responding to valid and reasonable queries from the players and LSG representatives,” the petition said.
“While we do recognize that this is the first National Conflicts of Law, it could never be an excuse for the [incompetency] that transpired throughout the event,” it added.
In a Facebook post on December 16, ALSP, through its National President-elect Alexis Vien Regala, issued a letter of apology for its “failure to deliver the aims and goals of the event” as well as to the “additional stress and problems that were caused by the event.”
“Even as this is the first National Conflicts of Laws held from being a regional event before, still there are no excuses for the lapses, mistakes, problems, disrespect, and concerns that happened during and after the event,” the letter stated.
The first National Conflicts of Law was held online from November 7 to 28.
THE BARRISTER 