Ateneo de Manila University basketball coach Tab Baldwin apologized to the school community and the general public and took responsibility for the drowning that claimed the lives of players Rene Baterbonia and Divine Adili.
In a video statement posted by the university’s Facebook page on Friday night, Baldwin said he failed to repay the trust given to him by the families of Baterbonia and Adili when both players got caught by the strong Pacific Ocean waves along the shores of Dipaculao, Aurora on Monday.
“As a coach, we are entrusted with the growth of our basketball players, the development of these young men into future professionals, but mostly, as a coach, I’m entrusted by you, the parents and the families, with first and foremost, their well-being. And in this, I feel I’ve failed. And I’m sorry. To the depth of my being, I’m sorry,” Baldwin said.
He then aired his side of the tragedy.
“On that fateful day when we sent the players out for a routine training run in what we thought was shallow water, up to the moment when we realized that whatever had happened, they were in dangerous water, 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 narrated.
Baldwin added: “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. At that moment, I felt I had failed. I failed as a leader. I felt I had failed as a coach. I certainly felt like I had failed as a friend to Divine and Rene, and when later I faced the team to try to be a leader in that moment, I felt that I failed them too.”
He then called on everyone to continue praying for the fallen Blue Eagles, as he hopes that the prayers will bind them together again after the incident caused some division between him and those who criticized him for organizing a team-building activity despite the danger.
“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. So I’m so deeply sorry to not just the families, but everybody that feels let down, somehow betrayed, and I pray that we all find some pathway forward to come back to hope for the future, love for one another, and forgiveness for those of us who failed and tried so desperately hard to reach a better outcome. I wish peace for everybody. I wish comfort for everybody who is hurting, and I pray that we will all find that,” Baldwin further said.
He concluded by saying that the Blue Eagles are still trying to recover from the tragedy.
Baldwin was first seen in public on Thursday night during a candlelight vigil inside the Ateneo campus in Quezon City in memory of Baterbonia and Adili.
Baterbonia’s remains have been flown to Davao City and are currently inside the Ateneo de Davao campus for the wake until the weekend.
The body will then be transported to the former Palarong Pambansa Most Valuable Player’s hometown of Talacogon, Agusan Del Sur, where he will be buried next week. (PNA)
