MANILA, Philippines — In a town hall at Ateneo de Manila University in Katipunan Tuesday, Ateneo men's basketball team members Jared Bahay, Ian Espinosa, and Andrew Bongo recounted how things went south in the Blue Eagles team-building activity in Dipaculao, Aurora, leading to the deaths of their teammates Rene Baterbonia and Divine Adili.
Around 2:30 p.m. on June 8, the team went for its jogging activity in the sea meant for conditioning as they strode against water resistance.
Espinosa recalled that coach Tab Baldwin asked who among the team knew and didn't know how to swim.
"When it was already 2:30, coach Tab asked who didn’t know how to swim, and some of us raised our hands — me, Jay-M (Leal), and others,” shared Espinosa in front of Ateneans including university officials and faculty members.
“Then there was Rene… Rene knew how to swim. Divine didn’t know how to swim. Then we were told that those who didn’t know how to swim should just stay near the shore.”
Bahay explained how safety was prioritized especially for non-swimmers.
“If this is the sea, and this is the shore, coach Dean (Castaño) was there and the players were there. The requirement was that the water should only be knee- to waist-deep. It wasn’t supposed to reach this high (chest level), because we’re not a swimming team that trains by swimming, right?
“Our training was simply to jog in the water so there would be resistance — that was the extent of our training. And then we had coaches here [in the] water."
Waves started to hit
Bongo shared how everyone was in high spirits until the waves started to hit and eventually hit them stronger.
"Everyone was having fun around at first. Guys were yelling, we were joking around like, ‘There are sharks.’ We were yelling, ‘There’s sharks!’ and stuff, you know, we were moving along the water,” Bongo said.
“Then about five minutes, waves started to come in. They weren’t like extreme waves, but a wave would come, and then you would notice that the water would go up when it cleared.”
Bahay said the undertow kept the players from going back to the shallow part of the sea despite swimming back. That's when the panic started to kick in.
"We were trying to swim until we reached the floor, but then when we were swimming back to the shallow part, we kind of noticed that we were not moving anymore. So we kind of panicked. The panic started coming in.”
Bongo said things spun out of control as everyone started screaming, trying to survive the waves especially Kyle Gamber.
“The first person that I noticed was Kyle Gamber, and he was screaming so loud and calling for help. I never heard anybody scream like that in my life. Then that’s when I realized this is bad, he really needs help," shared Bongo.
"Then, seeing everybody else, the panic was really setting in. People were screaming, the guys were trying to swim, and like splash and just panicking. Everyone was trying to grab onto each other, trying to help…”
Rene, Adili disappeared
As he tried to survive by jumping on the sand to rise above water repeatedly, Espinosa said he saw Baterbonia asking for help.
“I saw Rene behind me, he was doing the breaststroke and shouting for help. I told him, ‘Just jump!’ Then when I pushed off again and came back up, I couldn’t see Rene anymore,” shared Espinosa.
“I saw Divine behind me — EJ (Kapihe) was with Divine — and their heads were already down. At that point, I didn’t know what was happening to Divine anymore because I was starting to panic too, since I didn’t know how to swim," added Espinosa, who was eventually rescued by coach Tab and Sandro Soriano.
When the waves calmed down, Bahay shared a local bystander assessed the current and where it appeared to end, eventually spotting Baterbonia and later Adili.
“I moved a little farther away, then one person looked at me, he checked the direction the current was going — and we walked along the path where the current was carrying things,” Bahay said.
“Then suddenly, their bodies surfaced. I went to Rene when I saw that he had lost consciousness. I was so scared... and then Divine, I was the first one to grab him, together with EJ. Then we brought him back to the shore.”
Baldwin then accompanied Baterbonia and Adili who were brought to the hospital.
About an hour later, Espinosa said Baldwin returned and broke the bad news to the team, they lost Baterbonia and Adili.
