Tab Baldwin offered a brief recollection of the circumstances surrounding the tragic drowning incident in Dipaculao, Aurora, that claimed the lives of 18-year-old Agusan del Sur-native Rene Baterbonia and Nigerian Divine Adili last Monday.
The incident took place during the team’s off-season boot camp at Hermanos Leisure Farm Resort, where the Blue Eagles have held their yearly “boot camp” since 2017.
Based on the police report, the players were part of a shoreline exercise when conditions rapidly worsened in the early afternoon.
At around 2:30 PM, the group reportedly encountered strong waves and a powerful current.
Ten minutes later, at 2:40 PM, Baterbonia and Adili were swept away by a rip current while engaged in what was described as a knee-deep water drill.
By 2:50 PM, resort lifeguards were alerted and began searching the area, while authorities later confirmed that an official distress call was received at 3:04 PM.
Baldwin, speaking in a video released on Friday through Ateneo de Manila University’s official Facebook page, did not go into full detail about the activity but acknowledged the moment the situation turned critical.
“On that fateful day when we sent the players out for a routine training run and what we thought was shallow water, up to the moment when we realized that whatever had happened, they were in dangerous water,” Baldwin said.
“And we did everything that we could as coaches, as people responsible for that situation. The players themselves did everything they could to ensure that everybody arrived back on shore safely. And then we realized that we hadn’t accomplished that.”
He added that the realization of what was unfolding brought him to a deeply difficult emotional state.
“And in that moment, I experienced the descent into the darkest place imaginable.
“And yet, I knew at the same time that good people, people that had done an amazing job raising these two young men, were going to be in an even darker, more horrible place,” he said.
Screenshot from Mirayah
In the days that followed, Baterbonia’s wake was held at Arlington Memorial Chapel from Tuesday to Thursday, though Baldwin was not present during the viewing period.
The remains of Baterbonia have since been brought to Ateneo de Davao University.
Adili’s remains, meanwhile, remain in cold storage at Arlington.
Baldwin has yet to speak with the parents of both players, whom he personally recruited to the program.
Baldwin, who was put on leave by Ateneo on Thursday afternoon, shared what sustained him in the days following the incident, as he made his first public appearance during a candlelight vigil at Ateneo’s Zen Garden also on Thursday.
“And that left me with really the only thing that I’ve been clinging to for the last several days, that as part of a community of faith to pray, to pray that the Lord embraces our two boys… And I continue to beseech everybody that cared for, loves, loved Rene and Divine and their families, please keep praying,” he said.
“I think that my voice in prayer is hoarse now, but it will never be enough… So as we all try to move forward without Divine and Rene, I hope that in binding together as a community, as a basketball team, and as a nation, that we lean on the one place that will never let us down, and that is our Lord. I’m so deeply sorry.”
