Camp John Hay was originally a US military base established on Cordilleran indigenous territory of Baguio in 1903. After World War II, the land was transferred to the Philippine Government. The Philippine government leased the land to private developers (now known as the Camp John Hay Development Corporation) for development into a tourism and business hub. The area is now a mix of commercial properties, hotels, residential areas, and leaiure spots including a golf course and eco-parks.

For the purposes of this debate, a corporate-controlled city refers to an urban area governed by mega-corporations, which oversee essential services such as healthcare, security, and infrastructure. While citizens may vote for local leaders like mayors, the corporations maintain substantial influence and control, making decisions that affect daily life. Importantly, they are not owned or run by a single corporate entity, but by multiple mega-corporations that hold massive power and influence; and do not hold official offices of power or have an official council, but exert their power via owning the actual services required for the city to operate (as previously mentioned). A state-run city, in contrast, is governed primarily by a national or regional government, with public services managed by the state, and a state capacity to enforce regulations on corporations.

The July Revolution was a mass student-led uprising that successfully overthrew Bangladesh's ruling Awami League government, resulting in the formation of a politically neutral interim government. Many of the student leaders who spearheaded the revolution have taken on influential roles within this interim government and have founded the National Citizen's Committee (Jatiyo Nagorik Committee), a platform committed to "building a democratic Bangladesh" without political affiliations. However, a significant number of these student leaders previously engaged in political organizing under the banners of various political parties.

The Syrian Democatic Forces (SDF) is a Kurdish-led coalition of Syrian and other ethnic (Assyrian, Arab, etc.) militias funded by the United States to defeat the extremist group ISIS and take back territory in Northeastern Syria. Currently, the SDF controls a third of Syria’s territory and has preserved it for control of ISIS prisons and for local Kurdish Arab communities who do not share the same majoritarian religious identity. More recently, Syrian rebels successfully overthrew dictator Bashar al-Assad and the current de facto Syrian leaders are calling for the unification of different rebel factions into one united Syrian national army.

The University of the Philippines College Admission Test (UPCAT) is a standardized exam which covers language proficiency, reading comprehension, mathematics, and science and is the main admission requirement for the University of the Philippines (UP). 

An adversity score is score that measures a students adversity based on a number of criteria including but not limited to: race, income, crime rate in their area, quality of their school, extra-curricular performance, and others.