Ateneo Administration Criticized for ‘Inadequate’ Statements in Town Hall

On Tuesday, June 16, members of the Ateneo men’s basketball team appeared at the Ateneo de Manila University’s town hall, which was set up to address the university community’s concerns and questions about the Aurora drowning incident, in which their teammates Rene Clert Baterbonia and Divine Adili passed away. The surviving basketball players have been receiving support from the university’s Office of Guidance and Counselling since their return from Aurora.

The town hall comes over a week after the incident on June 8, after which Head Coach Thomas Anthony “Tab” Baldwin, ending his decade-long tenure with the Blue Eagles, along with team manager Christopher “Epok” Quimpo. University President Fr. Roberto “Bobby” Yap was also present in the town hall.

Student publication The GUIDON reports that, according to basketball player Jared Bahay, the team members’ phones were taken away from them the night before the incident. He, along with teammates Ian Espinosa and Andrew Bongo, also said that on the afternoon of the incident, they were tasked to jog in the water near the shore. According to Bongo, when Baldwin asked, the coach was notified that Adili did not know how to swim. The coaches joined them in the jogging exercise.

Bahay then said that “the waves came and we didn’t know that we were pulled farther [from shore],” but that the coaches also told them to “move along the shallow part.” “While we were swimming back to the shallow part, we noticed that we were not moving anymore, so the panic started coming in,” he recalled.

Espinosa, who was at the front of the line, “turned back and realized that some guys were still out there, so I swam back out to see what was going on.” This is when he saw his teammate, Kyle Gamber, crying out for help.

The players said they helped their teammates out of the water, with Bahay seeking help because his foot started to cramp as he swam. They also recalled seeing team members EJ Kapihe and Kiefer Alas crying, with EJ saying, “Divine’s gone.”

According to Bahay, Kapihe had tried to bring Adili back to shore, but the Nigerian center was already unconscious. Meanwhile, Espinosa said he saw Baterbonia “sa likod na [nag-breaststroke at sumisigaw],” but was found later on floating unconscious.

The 18 surviving players were reportedly brought to the resort’s pool area and away from the shore, where CPR was administered on Baterbonia. He and Adili were brought to the hospital, accompanied by Baldwin, who returned an hour later. 

ADMU Administration Addresses Backlash

After Bahay, Espinosa, and Bongo recounted the events leading up to Baterbonia and Adili’s deaths, Yap went on to answer more questions from faculty, staff, and students of Ateneo. According to the university president, Ateneo’s administration had reached out to the Baterbonia family to offer support, but they opted to get support from the Agusan local government unit instead. Ateneo also offered to host Baterbonia’s wake on campus, but the family declined.

Yap had earlier opened the town hall by apologizing to the families of Baterbonia and Adili. “Our commitment to the families is not limited to statements or announcements,” he said, addressing accusations that the university administration was too slow to respond to concerns on social media. During the town hall’s Q&A segment, he also said he realized “hindi lang dapat pastoral [ang gagawin na response],” because “ang lakas ng social media and communications.”

He also lamented that the case has been “politicized,” with Vice President Sara Duterte and Sen. Robin Padilla attending Baterbonia’s wake in Quezon City. Yap also claims that Sen. Bato dela Rosa, who remains in hiding due to the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against him, also appeared at the wake, but this claim is unverified.

Has Ateneo’s Response Been Enough?

At the town hall, political science professor Carmel V. Abao criticized the university’s inaction on the basketball team’s coaching staff. “You didn’t even preventively suspend Coach Baldwin and the other coaches,” she said. “Kung kami ‘yun [teaching staff], ginawa niyo agad ‘yun.”

Abao was among the university faculty members who initiated an open letter from teaching staff, which said that “The nameless, faceless, and sterile official social media posts have downplayed the gravity of the situation and the accountability of the University.”

Jedryc Romero, Ateneo’s incoming student council president, also presented an open letter calling for hard accountability. Romero suggested that Maria Teresa “Matec” Villanueva, the director of the University Marketing and Communications Office (UMCO), should be removed from her position. “Or at the very least, there should be a deep reevaluation of how we should communicate and talk to the community,” he said.

An audience member noted that Villanueva appeared “defensive” during a press conference regarding the drowning incident on June 13. “She looked like she wanted to intimidate the press rather than look accommodating.”

The students’ open letter, which has been signed by over 3,000 students, alumni, and campus organizations, also called for compassion, accountability, and justice.

“The first University statement was distant and deeply inadequate to the weight of what happened. Pero naghintay po kami sa pagpapakumbaba ng Ateneo. We believed that despite its flaws, the university has the capacity to self-correct. Nagkamali po kami,” said the letter. “More statements were issued later, all of them devoid of humanity. Bawat isa’y kulang ng puso, ng habag, at ng pakikipagkapwa-tao.”