A security guard at Ateneo de Davao University turned away lawyer Israelito Torreon and the people with him as they tried to join the closing night of the wake for Rene Clert N. Baterbonia, the lawyer said, even as a steady stream of other mourners was let through the gates.
Torreon, who serves as counsel for the family of the late Ateneo de Manila University basketball recruit, laid out what happened in a post on his Facebook account. He said his purpose in going to the wake on Sunday, June 14, was tied directly to the case he is handling — he wanted to see the body for himself. “I wanted to verify reports that there were early signs of putrefaction in Rene’s body and that there were indications of an unpleasant odor,” Torreon said. “I do not understand why his body would be in that condition so soon.”
By his account, the crowd that evening stretched from the area around Flores Village in Bangkal all the way to the university’s Senior High School campus, and those mourners were eventually admitted. His own group, he said, was the exception. A guard acting on orders from one of the university’s vice presidents stopped them at the entrance.
Torreon did not arrive alone. With him were fellow lawyer Regal Oliva, a friend he identified as Doods, his wife, and his children — among them Karlo Torreon, who once led the Ateneo de Davao Law Student Council — along with several other friends connected to the school.
“We waited there for almost an hour and were simply made to stand and wait. It was embarrassing, so we eventually decided to leave,” Torreon said.
As of the time Manila Bulletin published Torreon’s account, Ateneo de Davao had not addressed the allegation.
The dispute over access surfaced just as Baterbonia’s remains were due to leave the city. On the morning of Monday, June 15, a funeral convoy pulled away from the Ateneo de Davao Senior High School campus in Bangkal, beginning the trip toward the 18-year-old’s home province. Organizers said the route would pass through Panabo City, where the body was to be readied at Saint Peter’s Chapel before the journey resumed, with a departure from Panabo set for roughly 1 p.m.
From there the convoy was bound for Barangay San Agustin in Talacogon, Agusan del Sur, where Baterbonia is to lie at the municipal evacuation center and gymnasium. The university said it would relay the convoy’s progress to local governments and groups intending to receive the remains along the way.
Baterbonia and Nigerian teammate Chukwuemeka Divine Adili, 21, drowned on June 8 during a Blue Eagles team-building activity at a beach in Dipaculao, Aurora — the event that set the family’s legal effort in motion and made Torreon a central figure in the weeks since.
