MANILA, Philippines — The deaths of Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) Blue Eagles Rene Baterbonia and Divine Adili during a team building activity in Dipaculao, Aurora in June was “not an accident,” the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) said on Wednesday, even as the school's coaches dismissed allegations of homicide and hazing.
Maj. Gen. Robert Alexander Morico II, CIDG director, told reporters in a press briefing at Camp Crame that their investigation leaned toward a possible homicide or hazing case as the Anti-Hazing law also covered forced physical exercises initially looked into by authorities.
Pelagio Cuison, lawyer of ADMU basketball coach Reynaldo Jacinto who has been part of the basketball team for 20 years, told the National Bureau Investigation (NBI) that what happened to Baterbonia and Adili was unintentional and an accident.
According to Morico, the afternoon activity of the players was done in a secluded and unpopulated area about 700 meters away from the resort.
In a podcast interview, Blue Eagles Kieffer Alas and Sam Reyes, who were among the players present during the team building tragedy, flatly denied any hazing that happened but admitted that all of them who were in the water almost drowned.
The CIDG maintains that the investigation is still ongoing and parties’ denial does not automatically dismiss the angle of hazing.
“We will see,” Morico said.
Since only two players talked during a podcast interview, Morico classified their statement as “hearsay” and corroborating their claim through interviews with the rest of the participants was necessary to reconstruct the incident.
Several past and present Blue Eagles appeared in separate probes by the CIDG and the NBI on the deaths of Baterbonia and Adili.
Aside from the players who participated in the team building, former student athletes were also invited to shed light on the true nature of the annual Aurora team building spearheaded by now ADMU ex-head coach Tab Baldwin.
This was after past podcast interviews by former Blue Eagles resurfaced describing the activity not as a team building but a “bootcamp,” a term used for basic military training.
In a statement, the NBI clarified that under Article 365 of the Revised Penal Code, “death caused by reckless or simple imprudence is a criminal matter wholly independent of any intent to harm.”
Essentially, an event may be “accidental” in the sense that no one wished it, and yet remain the product of a failure to exercise the care the law demands,” the NBI said.
