Ten individuals, alongside former Ateneo de Manila University men’s basketball head coach Tab Baldwin, should answer for homicide over the deaths of two Blue Eagles student-athletes, the National Bureau of Investigation has told the Department of Justice.
The recommendation caps the NBI Homicide Division’s inquiry into what happened on June 8 in Dipaculao, Aurora, where student-athletes Rene Baterbonia and Divine Adili drowned while the team was going through a training session.
Investigators drew distinctions in how they assigned potential criminal liability. Six assistant coaches and the team’s physical therapist were flagged for reckless imprudence resulting in homicide, a separate and lesser count than the one recommended against Baldwin and his co-respondents.
A third category applied to those the bureau viewed as bearing a more removed form of responsibility: three resort owners and Ateneo’s athletic director, whom the NBI recommended be charged with simple negligence resulting in homicide.
The findings rest on a wide pool of testimony gathered over the course of the probe. Bureau agents took statements from Ateneo President Roberto “Bobby” Yap, SJ, from Baldwin himself, and from the physical therapist named in the referral. More than 20 players who currently suit up for the Blue Eagles or once did were also interviewed, as were members of the coaching staff.
The scope of those interviews reached beyond the university. Utility workers spoke to investigators, and so did the owner and personnel of the Dipaculao resort where the two athletes lost their lives.
