AFTER a gripping clincher round and two sudden-death questions, the Faculty of Engineering successfully defended its crown in the 45th Pautakan, narrowly defeating the College of Nursing in a tiebreaker and outlasting 15 other teams at the Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, O.P. Auditorium on April 28.
Engineering ended the difficult round of the team finals with 105 points, tied with Nursing. This triggered a clincher round where the two teams were asked six questions — one for each category — but the tie persisted.
In the first sudden-death round in a decade, according to UST History resource person Jose Victor Torres, Engineering won its 14th Pautakan championship by getting the second question right, solidifying its spot as the winningest team in the history of the longest-running intercollegiate quiz bee in the Philippines.
Engineering had kept its team intact from the previous edition. It was led by team captain Mayumi Calpotura and composed of sophomores Kathryn Cruz and Kurt Pumicpic, and juniors James Abris, Mark Añasco, Sophia Gabrielle Suarez, and Kevin Escalante.
Calpotura, a graduating student, expressed relief after defending the Pautakan title.
“There was a bit of pressure, especially since last year we were the champions as well, so it’s like a back-to-back thing. So there was an additional pressure to keep the trophy here, but I feel like a weight was lifted off my chest because that burden is now over, and the ending was good,” she told the Varsitarian.
The team captain said she was confident that Engineering would remain the team to beat in the coming years.
“I think we’re going to do quite well. Actually, I’m the only one who’s going to graduate in this team, and I know my team will be able to carry the torch forward,” she added. “Next year, you’re going to be scared of them as well.”
Engineering received the vault-inspired Pautakan trophy and the first revolving trophy in recent years, which is given to teams that have won three championships. It won the quiz tilt in 2019, 2024, and 2025.
Nursing placed second in the team category with 108 points, followed by Medicine, which garnered 95 points to take home bronze.
In the group eliminations, Nursing led all 16 teams with 175 points, followed by Medicine with 160 points, Engineering with 130 points, and the Faculty of Pharmacy, which tied with the College of Education at 110 points.
Medicine freshman strikes gold in solo
Faculty of Medicine and Surgery freshman Paul Topacio dominated the individual category of Pautakan with 125 points, followed by Joachim del Rosario of Nursing (90 points) and John Travis de Luna of the Faculty of Arts and Letters (80 points).
Topacio said Medicine’s victory was beyond the individual championship.
“It’s a mission accomplished, not just because of our victory, but because we grew as persons. We learned a lot, we became better learners, better teammates, and became better overall as persons, not just because of the victory, but because of our journey,” he said.
Topacio also topped the individual eliminations with 115 points, followed by Del Rosario of Nursing with 80 points, Vince Lopez of Commerce with 70 points, De Luna of Artlets with 65 points, and Nathan Orencia of Education with 60 points.
The participants were quizzed on six categories with questions of varying levels of difficulty: easy, average, and difficult. Each difficulty category had 12 questions, with topics ranging from UST history, history, general information and current events, humanities, science and technology, and mathematics.
The resource persons for the 45th Pautakan were Torres (UST History), Emmanuel Jeric Albela (History), Jose Ramon Lorenzo (General Information and Current Events), Carl Rogel Inocentes (Science and Technology), Mark Jason Celiz (Mathematics), and Jose Neil Garcia (Humanities).
Serving as quizmasters in the finals round were former UST courtside reporter and social media personality Angelique Manto and UST education alumnus and voiceover artist Claude Lucas Despabiladeras.
The eliminations round was hosted by 2021 Distinguished Thomasian Alumni Award recipient Julius Fernandez and former Varsitarian staffer and student jock Alyanna Tamara.
Pautakan founder Jesselynn Garcia-Dela Cruz, under whose term as Varsitarian editor in chief the UST quiz bee was first organized, delivered the opening remarks for the 45th edition.
“This (Pautakan) is far from what we originally had, but basically nothing has changed; it is still Pautakan, labanan ng utak, what you’re prepared for, what you stored up there,” she said
“This quiz competition would not have earned this history if not for the continued [participation] of the competing college and faculty teams,” she added. “I give the credit to those who continued after, who saw that it was a good thing, who said let’s do it again, let’s do it better.” with reports from Billy Andrei P. Ramos, Rafael Paolo P. Salaya, John Kobe S. Balod, and Micah G. Pascua
