DILG: No reason to charge Ateneo student-athletes over drownings

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) maintained that there was no reason to charge the Ateneo de Manila University student-athletes who were present at the Aurora training activity in which players Rene Baterbonia and Divine Adili died.

The DILG previously recommended to the Department of Justice that resigned Ateneo men’s basketball head coach Tab Baldwin and 10 of his staff be charged for violating Republic Act No. 11053 or the Anti-Hazing Act in connection with Baterbonia and Adili’s death.

“In relation to this, we clarify that we see no reason to include other student-athletes as respondents in the case we recommended,” DILG Secretary Jonvic Remulla said in a press briefing in Camp Crame on Monday.

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“They are merely victims of the violent training rhat took place,” he stressed.

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Baterbonia and Adili died after being swept away by large waves during a training activity in Dipaculao, Aurora earlier this month.

In recommending the hazing charges over the two student-athletes’ deaths, the DILG cited the definition of hazing under RA No. 11053, which included “forced calisthenics” and “exposure to the weather.”

“What is most important for us is to hold accountable all those who planned the activity and deliberately made the student-athletes suffer. That’s why our recommendation is to charge and prosecute the coaches of the Ateneo men’s basketball team, especially its head coach, Tab Baldwin,” Remulla stressed.

“Above this, the incident opens a much larger conversation on how we can keep our schools peaceful and safe from all forms of hazing and other abuses under the law,” he added. /das

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