Ateneo's Kieffer Alas, Sam Reyes reveal what happened during the Dipaculao tragedy
After days of public speculation and mounting questions over what led to the drowning of Ateneo men's basketball players Rene Baterbonia and Divine Adili, two members of the team have shared their firsthand account of the tragedy that unfolded on June 8.
In a recent interview with Pia Hontiveros in her "Let's Talk" podcast produced by the Pod Network, Ateneo Blue Eagles players Kieffer Alas and Sam Reyes broke their silence on the Dipaculao training camp tragedy, recounting the events leading up to the deaths of their teammates.
According to the student-athletes, before they went to the training camp, they had attended long preparation meetings where newly resigned Ateneo Blue Eagles head coach Tab Baldwin discussed how the area had rip currents.
"We had like a pretty long discussion about it, like swim vertical to the shore kapag may rip current, and they warned us about the unevenness, like you can randomly go back down and up," Alas said.
Despite this, Alas and Reyes said that they weren't really afraid of the currents at the time as they were more excited about training with their teammates.
When asked whether the team-building event was an initiation rite for freshmen members, Alas maintained that it was not the case.
"Not at all. I know my veterans wouldn't even think of that. They wouldn't do that to me," he said.
When they noticed something was wrong
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On the day of the incident, Alas recounted that after lunch, the coaches told them that they were to line up along the shoreline. Some were already standing in thigh-deep water as they prepared to carry out the drills.
Reyes noted that at first, the sand was even on their feet.
"Pero nung nag-walk po kami ng few meters, lumalalim na po siya nang kaunti," he said. "We were just starting, then kaunting meters pa lang po, lumakas na po bigla 'yung mga alon. It was bigger than us."
The players were still having fun with the first wave and didn't think much of it, but what they didn't notice was that the water had quickly gone up from their thighs to their chest.
"Nung nag-second wave po, bigla pong may wave na sumabay. Sunod sunod na po starting from the second wave," Reyes said.
The two noted that Adili was somewhere in the middle of the line, while Baterbonia was near the end.
"During the second wave, one of our teammates started screaming 'Help!' kasi he was around my area. He got separated and went to the back," Alas said. "The weird thing was that we were all laughing because we thought he was just joking."
"Nung first wave po kasi, we were riding the wave, and we didn't realize na hinahatak na po kami. Then nung second wave, doon na po talaga namin na-realize na something was wrong," Reyes added, noting that everyone started screaming because their feet were no longer tounching the ground.
While Reyes and some of his other teammates managed to swim back to safety, he saw that the others were still in trouble and decided to swim back to help them.
He eventually decided to just float until the waves started to bring him near the shore again.
On the other hand, Alas, as well as Adili, were depending on one of their teammates who knew how to swim to help them, but the current kept pulling them under.
"I was going down and down. I was gonna accept na mawawala na po ako. Then after more seconds went by, I felt my feet touch the sand. There's like a glimpse of hope. So I jumped and gasped for air. Tapos ang layo po ng lahat sa'kin," he said.
He eventually started paddling back to shore until he managed to swim back to safety.
As for their coaches, Reyes said that Baldwin had brought a surfboard to go to one of their teammates while assistant coach Sandro Soriano also went to the water to help.
Retrieving Baterbonia and Adili's bodies
When asked at what point did everybody realize that Baterbonia and Adili were gone, Reyes recalled that a person wearing an orange lifejacket had screamed for help because they saw Baterbonia's body.
"Rene was the first one found," Alas said.
Reyes added, "Matagal na po silang nasa tubig."
According to them, member EJ Kapihe was the last one to see Adili.
"When we saw Rene, it was us who carried him out of the water. Not the first responders. Wala pong tumulong. They were just spectating. They were just watching us," Reyes said, with Alas noting that one bystander was recording the incident.
Shortly after Baterbonia's ambulance had left, they saw Adili being carried out by 15 people.
Reyes overheard his teammates claiming that Adili still had a pulse when he was carried back to shore, before being put into a police vehicle.
Addressing speculations
Alas and Reyes denied online rumors that players were wearing ankle weights during the drills, and Alas reiterated that no hazing took place.
Regarding safety measures, Reyes felt they were lacking: "When I was almost drowning, I was just alone. So for me, parang kulang po yung safety."
Following the tragedy, coaches advised them not to tell anyone about the incident as they wanted to inform Baterbonia and Adili's parents first about what happened before they can learn it from others through social media. The only people they could tell were their own parents.
Both players expressed immense pain over the online backlash and death threats they have since received from netizens blaming them for the deaths.
At one point during the interview, Reyes struggled to hold back his emotions as he reflected on the backlash some of the surviving players have received in the aftermath of the tragedy.
"It's just hard that the comments are saying that we did it because we were jealous. It's just killing us because we were there. We lost two of our brothers. It's really painful," he said. "Nabuhay nga po kami, pero pinapatay po kami."
"[It's] like going through two deaths. The first one is losing our two teammates, then now being criticized for their deaths. We lost them, we witnessed it happen. Then every social media person, they're just putting the blame on us," Alas said.
Alas admitted that the lack of official information from Ateneo fueled the harmful speculation.
"I feel like the speculations and rumors and the threats and hate towards us players was due to not enough information, so that just made them guess from all the photos and hearsay around," he said.
When asked for their reaction on Baldwin and team manager Christopher "Epok" Quimpo's resignation, both players stated they are still too traumatized to process it.
Looking ahead, both intend to return to basketball after recovering mentally. Reyes highlighted that he wants to play to "honor our brothers and dedicate that season to them."
Baterbonia and Adili passed away on June 8 after drowning in Dipaculao, Aurora during a team-building activity.
The Aurora police previously ruled the drowning an accident, and parallel investigations National Bureau of Investigation, the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit, the Philippine Sports Commission, the Commission on Higher Education, and the Aurora local government are ongoing, with initial findings showing no evidence of foul play.
