Coach Tab Baldwin speaks up on Ateneo team-building tragedy: 'I feel I've failed and I'm sorry'

Ateneo Blue Eagles head coach Tab Baldwin has broken his silence after the deaths of student-athletes Divine Adili and Rene Baterbonia during a team-building activity.

Baterbonia, 19, and Adili, 21, of the Ateneo Blue Eagles men's basketball team, lost their lives on June 8 after a drowning incident in Dipaculao, Aurora. 

After keeping silent for days, Baldwin has spoken up through a video statement shared on Ateneo de Manila University's Facebook page on Friday, June 12.

"I've been asked to limit my comments this morning to four minutes and in a situation in which I've been utterly lost for words, four minutes seems like an eternity and yet if I had the opportunity to speak about Rene and Divine, I believe I can speak for hours," he began.

"But they're gone," he continued, "And we're left behind."

The coach added that they're "carrying immense sorrow, we're carrying immense grief, we're carrying immense remorse."

"But I've known since the moment that I was told that our boys had passed away, that no matter the magnitude of our grief, there were two families that experienced a loss that was so much greater than ours, and a loss that would stay with them in the most acute way for the remainder of their lives," he said. 

Baldwin stressed that he's also feeling the magnitude of their loss. "Never again will I be able to help them develop into the basketball players they wanted to be, to help them grow into the young men that they promised that they could be," he said. "But that's insignificant compared to what their families are experiencing."

"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," he continued. "And in this, I feel I've failed and I'm sorry. To the depth of my being, I'm sorry."

He then recalled what he remembers from 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," he said.

Baldwin emphasized they "did everything that we could, as coaches, as people responsible for that situation" and that the players also "did everything they could to ensure that everybody arrived back on shore safely."

"And then we realized that we hadn't accomplished that,” he continued. "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," he said.

Baldwin again apologized to the Ateneo players' families and "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," he concluded.

On his days-long silence after the drowning incident

Baldwin appeared on the Powcast Sports podcast after the release of his video statement, which made it his first public interview after the tragedy.

When asked why he remained silent about the incident for days, he said "it's actually a lot more straightforward than people realize."

"The university obviously, when the tragedy happened, the university wanted to handle things from the institutional standpoint, and obviously, they wanted all the facts and all the details and they wanted to process that and deal with the authorities that are in charge of this and are going to be in charge of this," he said. "It was more than a request—their determination was that not just me, but all of us involved should refrain from any public pronouncements, any discussions with the media, any posts on social media."

"As much as I would have loved to just tell what happened, to be perfectly honest, I don't think I was very capable at the time of recounting the details and reliving the horror of what we saw, and I felt also that the focus at the time should be really on the two boys that we all lost, especially the families," he explained.

"It was, I think, responsible of me and correct of me to comply with Ateneo's direction," he continued.

Baldwin, however, stressed that he understood why people were wondering why he kept mum about the incident for a while. "I get that, I understand that. But that was the determination of the powers that be and that's what I went along with."

"I know that the official process is going to take place and the facts are going to come out—and everybody wants that, we want that—but there's a time and a place for that," he continued. "It's hard, but it has to be done. I'm grateful for Ateneo for finally allowing me to begin the process of talking to people about this."

Team-building tragedy

While participating in a team-building activity with the rest of their teammates at a resort in Dipaculao, Divine and Rene were carried away by a rip current. They were found 30-40 minutes later. A physician at an Aurora hospital declared them dead on arrival. 

Initial findings by the Aurora police have suggested the incident was purely accidental, and ruled out foul play. 

A subpoena was issued against the team's American-New Zealander head coach Tab Baldwin by the Department of Labor and Employment over his employment permit as a foreigner, but he still remained silent until June 12. His first public appearance since the incident was at a community vigil for Adili and Baterbonia on June 11 inside the university campus. 

In a statement released on June 11, AdMU President Fr. Roberto C. Yap SJ clarified Baldwin's silence was not by choice. The university requested the coach to refrain from making public statements "to allow the official processes to proceed and the facts to be established before any public discussion of the matter," Yap wrote. 

Instead of speaking to the press, the university advised Baldwin to look after the welfare of the players, coaches, and staff, as well as his own. 

"At a time when our priority was caring for those most directly affected, we believed it was neither appropriate nor helpful to ask Coach Baldwin to engage in public commentary while the community was mourning and while the circumstances surrounding the incident were still being examined," the statement continued. 

Yap urged the public not to mistake Baldwin's silence for indifference. 

"Rather, it reflects the University's decision to place care healing, and due process ahead of public discussion," Yap wrote. 

Multiple agencies have launched parallel investigations into the incident, including the Dipaculao local government, Philippine National Police, National Bureau of Investigation, the Commission on Higher Education, and the Philippine Sports Commission. 

Baterbonia’s remains were flown to Davao early Friday, June 12, for a three-day wake before being brought home to Agusan del Sur. The Embassy of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in the Philippines is also facilitating the repatriation of Adili’s remains to Nigeria. The families of both victims have requested that autopsies be conducted.