Investigators have built their case around a single legal reframing: that a basketball team’s training camp in Aurora province functioned as a hazing exercise under the law, not the conditioning drill it was presented as.
That interpretation drives the recommendation by the Philippine National Police–Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) to charge former Ateneo de Manila University men’s basketball head coach Thomas Anthony “Tab” Baldwin and 10 members of his staff under Republic Act No. 11053, the Anti-Hazing Act. Inquirer.net reported the recommendation was announced at a Quezon City briefing.
“The PNP CIDG recommends the evaluation, case build-up and preliminary evaluation by the Department of Justice for violation of Republic Act No. 11053 or the Anti-Hazing Act against respondents who actually planned and participated in the hazing,” Remulla said.
The law’s text was central to the finding. The CIDG pointed to language in RA No. 11053 covering “forced calisthenics and exposure to the weather” as falling within the statutory definition of hazing.
“Our past concept of hazing was limited to just initiations. But, here, the team-building and training activity crossed over into hazing,” Remulla said.
DILG legal and legislative affairs chief Brian Tomas laid out a timeline of June 8 that, in the group’s view, established the players were pushed past safe physical limits. The team rose at 4 a.m. and was ordered to run four kilometers, he said.
“This was subsequently followed by intense physical games and punishment for losers in these games,” Tomas said.
The seawater portion of the day began between 2 and 2:30 p.m., according to Tomas, who noted that high tide on June 8 was forecast for 2:27 p.m. — placing the players in the water at its peak.
“The victims were exposed to a hazardous open-sea environment characterized by rip currents, strong waves and varying seabed depths,” he said. “It is clear from the itinerary of the players that they were subjected to intense physical activity.”
Two players, Rene Baterbonia and Divine Adili, drowned during that activity.
Tomas tied the camp’s purpose directly to the statute’s coverage of conduct required for continued membership, citing the law’s definition of hazing as any act causing “physical or psychological suffering, harm, or injury… as part of an initiation rite or practice made as a prerequisite for admission or a requirement for continuing membership.”
He said the stakes for the players were concrete: 20 team members attended the Aurora activity, but only 17 could be listed on the roster Ateneo would submit to the University Athletics Association of the Philippines.
“The supposed teambuilding activity conducted in Aurora was precisely made to determine which members of the team will make it to the final list submitted by coach Tab Baldwin to the UAAP board,” Tomas said.
Alongside Baldwin, the recommendation names strength and conditioning coaches Grant Dearns and Ceasar Vicent Javellana Elumba; assistant coaches Dean Caesar B. Castaño, Sandro Nicholas Romero Soriano and Reynaldo Jacinto; student managers Paolo Manuel Maceda Adevoso and Andrew Lorenzo “Drew” Bondoc Salud; physical therapist John Eric Quiambao Rueca; and utility personnel Aris Ramos Pronce and Joel “Boy” Palmiano Rapa.
The police account also addressed a claim that had circulated early in the case. CIDG director Maj. Gen. Robert Morico said no weights were found on the bodies of Baterbonia and Adili when they were recovered — a detail first raised by then-Aurora Provincial Police Office director Col. Percival Pineda.
Pineda has since lost his post. PNP chief Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. said the colonel was relieved after stating, two days after the deaths, that there was no “foul play” in the case.
Ateneo de Manila University responded Friday through spokesperson Fr. RB Hizon, SJ, who said the school acknowledged the recommendation and respected the investigation.
“We also recognize that other investigations remain ongoing, and we will continue to cooperate fully with all competent authorities as they complete their respective inquiries, while the CIDG’s recommendation will now be reviewed by the Department of Justice, as provided under the law,” Hizon said.
