After bagging the national title in the English Speaking Union (ESU) Philippines tilt held last February 9, John Rafael Faustino of Far Eastern University will represent the country in the 2019 International Public Speaking Competition (IPSC) in May.

After series of eliminations, Oratorical and Debate Council (ORADEC) senior debater Faustino was hailed champion by ESU Philippines among 97 qualifiers from all over the country.

Faustino advanced from preliminaries and competed for the final round with the theme, ”Nature is a common language,” against contenders Hannah Banocnoc of University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman and Wynona Galves of Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) Manila.

Faustino was the Tamaraws’ bet for last year’s competition but he fell short as a semi-finalist. Obtaining the title this year, he shared his preparations for the competition.

“For the final round, I was up all night the day before, trying to rewrite my old speech to fit the new theme of “Nature is a common language.” I was able to scrape a final draft and basically memorized the whole thing in three hours,” he said.

The young debater shared his appreciation to his tilt mentors, Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs Joeven Castro, Fely Manaois from Language Learning Center, and the ORADEC.

Faustino is the fourth national champion from FEU to represent the country in IPSC following FEU ORADEC alumni Ryan Kaliph Buenafe (2002), Weber Amores (2007), and One Carlo Diaz (2017).

Preparing his flying documents, the Philippine candidate assures to continue giving his best for the upcoming contest in London this May.

“People can expect me to remain the same in May, take it one day at a time, try to write the best speech that I can, and have fun with everyone,” he said.

Established in 1980, IPSC is accommodating young university aspirants from more than 50 countries through national ESU and pits global champion.

- Kaye Angelique S. Baeza and Trisha Angelika C. Ignacio