Iligan City (CNN Philippines) — The Philippines, represented by law students of the University of San Carlos (USC) and the University of the Philippines (U.P.), dominated the 20th Stetson International Environmental Law Moot Court Competition held at the Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport, Florida April 13 to 16.
The two Philippine teams fought for the title in the finals, but USC emerged as the champion while (U.P.) finished in second place.
The USC team is comprised of Tess Tan and Mark Badayos, who swept all the awards in the final round — Best Memorial, Finals Best Speaker/Oralist, and Over-all Best Speaker/Oralist — in addition to the championship.
The USC team senior members who did not moot in Stetson are also in the U.S. as representatives for the second time in the recently concluded Jessup Competition, another prestigious international moot court competition.
Prior to the championship rounds, the Philippine delegation hurdled first the preliminary regional championship in Southeast Asia that was hosted by U.P. last January.
Four teams from Southeast Asia qualified: USC, U.P., Singapore Management University and the National University of Singapore.
The win is historic for both the Philippines and Southeast Asia as this is the first time that a Southeast Asian team has won the championship in the 20 years of the competition.
