The likelihood of Cheska Rojas and Andreas Santos breaking into the semifinals of a national debate tournament is so improbable, it’s almost a miracle.

First, the existence of a debate club among home-schoolers is uncommon. Their fellow debaters would exclaim, “Whoa! You guys are home-schooled? We thought you studied alone.”

Unlike other debate teams who train in classrooms, members of the home-school debate club would gather in one of their homes to train. But the pandemic has normalized online debate tournaments, making them even more accessible.

Santos’ mother Dianne, who was a high school and college debater, started the Philippine Home-schoolers Debate Society as a way to continue bonding with her son as he was entering his teen years.

She said, “It was my way to stay close to him. When everybody’s parents were banned from the meetups because it was uncool, I still got to meet his friends who also confided in us because we were also their debate coach and they felt they could share their feelings with us. I’m happy to be close to my son’s barkada, his debate peers, in this sense.”

Youngest debater

At 12, Santos was the youngest debater in the Ateneo debate tournament, when his voice was still high and his senior high school opponents would say, “Oh my god! We’re up against a kid!”

Santos making it to the semifinals of University of the Philippines Debate Society’s “Fast Forward,” one of the largest national debate tournaments, was also unexpected because growing up, he had a horrible stutter. He also had Asperger’s syndrome, which meant he had a hard time communicating.

Apart from having an overbite, he was tongue-tied, a congenital defect characterized by limited mobility of the tongue, and even had to be operated on for this as a baby. This meant he’s always had a hard time pronouncing certain words.

When he said he wanted to join the debate circuit, his mom was worried that his Asperger’s and speech impediment would become an issue. But to compensate, Santos trained really hard and did speech exercises every day, so his diction would improve.

Smart mouth

Meanwhile, his debate partner Rojas was quite the opposite. At a young age, she was known for her smart mouth and was known as “Inglisera” (English-speaking). When she was 9, her interview on the noontime show “It’s Showtime,” where she was teaching Vhong Navarro how to speak proper English, even went viral.

Rojas was known as that “nosebleed” Inglisera kid who would join pageants and singing competitions. The American and British accents she developed at such a young age were funny and surprising even to her parents, because Rojas hails from Samar and her mom is Waray.

Rojas has big dreams of becoming a star, which was not without difficulty. She would commute by bus or train from audition to audition, sometimes arriving to it sweaty from running, and all her mom could do was wipe the sweat off her brow before sending her off to the stage.

Rojas’ determination to succeed is such that she would be the last one to leave dance practice, even skipping meals to squeeze in an extra rehearsal. All the hard work paid off when she got to play Molly in “Annie” the musical at Resorts World Manila.

Little did she know that her theater skill would also translate into good debate skills.

160 teams

Rojas had only been debating and training for two months when she and her partner Santos broke into the semifinals of “Fast Forward 2021’s “Novice Category, beating over 340 participants and 160 teams, some of whom are from well-established private schools. Miriam College, Immaculate Conception Academy, La Salle, Ateneo, Xavier and Paref schools are just some of the institutions that sent delegates to the tournament. Two weeks after Rojas started debating, the duo also broke into the presemifinals of Philippine Economania Debate tournament, Open Division, in September, beating college students and senior high school students at their sophomore year.

The close-knit Philippine Homeschool Debate Society community was thrilled for the two, cheering them on as they competed. Rojas and Santos are an inspiration for their committed teachers and other home-schoolers who want to succeed in debate.

They know debate can provide an avenue for them to get college scholarships but as it is, debate has expanded their vision of the world and has taught them to fight for their convictions.

Rojas and Santos are even more enthusiastic about debate now, with their win serving as a testament to where passion and commitment can take you. —CONTRIBUTED INQ

Philippine Homeschoolers Debate Society, facebook.com/phdsdebate.