It should have been a memorable team-building experience for Ateneo de Manila University in Dipaculao, Aurora.
For a few days, the Blue Eagles were meant to be together as a unit, away from cellphones and immersed in activities designed to strengthen their bond.
Instead, the trip ended in tragedy with the deaths of Nigerian student-athlete Divine Adili and incoming freshman Rene Baterbonia.
At a town hall on Tuesday at the Katipunan campus, Jared Bahay, Andrew Bongo, and Ian Espinosa stood before their fellow Ateneans and recounted the events that led to the untimely passing of their two teammates.
HOW IT ALL STARTED
The tragedy unfolded during an afternoon session that followed specific guidelines. Before the team even entered the water, head coach Tab Baldwin conducted a safety check.
“Nung 2:30 na, nagtanong na si Coach Tab kung sino ang ‘di marunong lumangoy, so may mga nagtaas — ako ng kamay, sila Jay-M (Leal), ganun,” Espinosa recalled. “Tapos sila Rene… Sila Rene marunong naman lumangoy. Si Divine, hindi marunong lumangoy. Tapos ang sinabi, yung mga hindi marunong lumangoy, dito lang kayo sa malapit.
“Tapos, yung exercise is sundan lang si Coach Dean (Castaño) sa shore. Kung ‘di mo kayang lumangoy, puwede naman maglakad basta abot mo yung tubig.”
The protocols were designed to prioritize safety, with the activity focused on conditioning rather than swimming.
“To explain properly: if this is the sea, this is the shore, Coach Dean is there, and the players are there,” Bahay added. “Dapat yung requirement is the water should be knee to waist. ‘Di aabot dito [pointing at chest level], kasi ‘di naman kami swimming team na lalangoy yung training, ‘di ba?
“Yung training namin is to jog in the water so there’s resistance — ‘yun lang training namin. And then we had coaches here [in the] water.”
THINGS TAKE A TURN
The exercise began in high spirits, with the players unaware that ocean conditions were gradually shifting beneath them.
“So when we started, 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.
“But we were moving along the water for about five minutes, 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.”
As the waves grew stronger, the undertow slowly pulled the group farther into deeper water.
“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,” Bahay explained.
“So we kind of panicked. The panic started coming in.”
Bongo described the moment panic fully set in.
“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. 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…”
DESPARATE FIGHT
In the chaos that followed, the team fought desperately for survival and to stay together.
Espinosa, a non-swimmer, found himself in the middle of the struggle, trying to keep himself afloat while witnessing his teammates being overwhelmed.
“Nakita ko si Rene sa likod; nagbe-breaststroke siya tapos sumisigaw siya ng tulong. Sinabihan ko siya na, ‘Tumalon ka lang!’ Tapos nung kumuha ako ulit ng buwelo, pag-angat ko, ‘di ko na nakita si Rene,” Espinosa shared.
“Nakita ko si Divine sa likod — kasama ni EJ (Kapihe) si Divine sa likod — heads down na. So that time, ‘di ko na rin alam kung ano ang nangyayari kay Divine kasi that time, nagpa-panic na rin ako kasi ‘di rin ako marunong lumangoy.”
Espinosa was eventually pulled to safety by the coaches. On shore, however, the grim reality set in as the team realized that Baterbonia and Adili were missing. Bahay, alongside a local bystander who assessed the current, followed the shoreline in search of them.
“Medyo lumayo po ako, tapos sabi ng isang tao — tiningnan niya ako, he looked at the current kung saan papunta — tapos nilakad namin kung saan pumunta yung current,” Bahay said.
“Tapos biglang lumitaw yung mga bodies nila. I went to Rene noong nakita ko po siyang nawalan ng malay. I was so scared po… And then si Divine po, ako po yung unang humawak po sa kanya, kami ni EJ, then dinala po namin sa shore.”
THE HAUNTING AFTERMATH
Desperate life-saving efforts on the sand were ultimately unsuccessful, and the team’s worst fears were confirmed about an hour later when Baldwin returned from the hospital.
In concluding his testimony at the town hall, Espinosa left those in attendance with a haunting recollection of the scene shortly after the two bodies were recovered — an abrupt contrast to the violent waves that had just taken his teammates.
“Tapos yung nakakaano pa is, habang tinatawagan ko tatay ko, tumitingin ako sa dagat — sobrang kalmado na ng dagat after namin sila makita,” he concluded. “So nung nakita pa namin sila, grabe pa yung alon, pero nung tinatawagan ko na yung Dad ko, walang alon. Sobrang kalmado talaga.”
