Ateneo players recount events of Aurora drowning incident

Ateneo de Manila University players Jared Bahay, Kieffer Alas, and several of their current Blue Eagles teammates who were present recounted the events leading up to and surrounding the ill-fated team-building activity in Dipaculao, Aurora, which claimed the lives of their fellow student-athletes Rene Baterbonia and Divine Adili.

READ MORE | Ateneo recruit Rene Baterbonia, foreign student athlete Divine Adili die in drowning incident

For the first time since the incident on June 8, Blue Eagles players came forward to narrate what transpired before, during, and after the incident, providing the public with their accounts of the events that unfolded on the fateful day.

Bahay, Ian Espinosa, and Andrew Bongo spoke at a town hall event at the Ateneo campus while Alas and Reyes appeared in a podcast interview on Tuesday.

Pre-departure to Aurora

A couple of days before leaving Manila to set up a training camp at the Hermanos Leisure and Farm Resort, now-resigned head coach Tab Baldwin held a meeting regarding their activities.

There, the players were briefed about activities, including a talk about rip currents and instructions on how to escape safely should they get caught in one.

"We had like a pretty long discussion naman about it po like swim vertical to the shore 'pag may rip current and they warned us din about uneven na sand," incoming rookie Alas shared on the Let’s Talk with Pia Hontiveros.

But at the time, he said the players were not scared of what might happen.

"Probably the idea of getting tired lang but other than that, we were pretty excited [about the camp]."

On June 7, Sunday, Ateneo rode a bus to start their trip to Aurora. This was after they had played one game in the FilOil EcoOil Preseason Cup against Adamson University on June 6 where the Blue Eagles pulled off a 72-52 win with both Baterbonia and Adili watching from the sidelines.

Baterbonia was seated behind Reyes, while Adili was seated in the rearmost section of the bus. Also in the camp were assistant coaches Sandro Soriano, Jon Jacinto, Dean Castaño, strength and conditioning coach CJ Elumba, a physical trainer, and two student managers.

"Coach Tab was like saying na the team building was for us to get closer and to build that mental toughness," Reyes, a first-timer at the training camp, said in the same podcast episode.

Alas and Reyes added that parents' consent was secured before joining the camp.

Arrival at Aurora

The Blue Eagles spent the first 30 minutes assigning rooms. Reyes and Alas were assigned to the same room as Baterbonia, Adili, Shaun Tuano, Sultan Baruwa, and Logan Baltazar.

Before dinner, several players cleaned debris on the beach in preparation for their running and dodgeball activity the next day. Alas shared that they even wrote 'Rene' on the sand.

During dinner, Baldwin announced that he would confiscate everyone's mobile phones for the entirety of the camp. They said Baldwin noted that the players could be given a phone break but no specific time or date was provided.

They then had a group session where players were asked to share a funny piece of trivia about themselves; Baterbonia shared that he liked watching 'mukbang' videos while Adili shared a lengthy fact about himself.

The following morning

The sound of a siren woke the players, prompting everyone to scramble out of their rooms as the camp officially got underway before sunrise.

"So 'yung signal kasi ng paggising namin ay siren so 'pag may siren, bibigyan kayo ng two minutes para maka-prepare and paggising niyo dapat diretso shore na," Espinosa shared at the town hall at the Leong Hall Auditorium.

"'Pag 'di kayo umabot ng two minutes may push-ups kayong gagawin"

According to the players, the camp got off to a strong start, with all of them reaching the shore within the allotted two-minute period. After doing some stretches, each player was given a banana and an energy drink to prepare for the run.

Baterbonia was among the first players to complete the run, surprising his teammates and coaches since he had joined the team in Manila only a few days earlier.

After the first activity, the team was able to gather for breakfast, with the veterans taking charge of the cooking while the rookies prepared the tables and dining area.

The players said they also played several games of dodgeball.

The tragedy

Following the break, the players were told that the next activity—a water-based exercise—would last for around 10 minutes.

Espinosa said that before the activity, the players were asked who did not know how to swim. Those who raised their hands, including Espinosa and Adili, were told to stay closer to shore.

According to Bongo, the instructions were to "stay along the coach who was walking along the shore."

A few minutes into the activity, though, Reyes said a big wave crashed over the players.

"It was bigger than us," Reyes recalled. "At first we were having fun, laughing after the first waves."

After the second wave hit, several more followed.

"They weren't like extremely big waves. A wave would come, and then you would notice that the water rose a little bit," Bongo said.

"When a wave would come, you kinda jump to try to go over it. You expect to land in the same spot every time that happened. Every time a wave came, you would jump, you came down, the water rose a little bit. Another wave comes, you jump, the water rose a little bit more."

According to them, the water level went from thigh-deep to chest-deep and a coach started signalling for them to come in.

The first person they noticed to shout for help was Kyle Gamber, before other players began screaming and some trying to grab each other to help.

Bahay said he knew how to swim but found it difficult, as he felt that he was swimming in place. He said he received help and was pulled into a shallow area where his feet could reach the floor.

He added that he was also able to pull in some other nearby teammates who needed help.

Amid the chaos, Reyes and Alas said they also found themselves struggling against the powerful rip currents, with both later admitting that they feared they would not make it out alive.

Espinosa said he tried to survive by jumping over the waves. He said he saw Baterbonia behind him struggling to swim, and told his younger teammate 'tumalon ka lang'. But there came a time when he surfaced and he could no longer see anybody.

He, too, thought he might not survive before he was eventually helped by Coach Soriano and Baldwin, who swam out in rescue efforts.

According to Reyes, there was only one lifeguard at the resort.

About 30 minutes after the rip currents hit, Baterbonia was the first victim located. Bahay and Reyes helped carry him out of the water, where their physical therapist performed CPR before the medic stopped it so they could load him into an ambulance.

Adili was found later and also received CPR before being brought to the hospital in a police vehicle.

Espinosa said that after the two players were brought to the hospital, the other 18 players were gathered by a pool by Coach Jacinto, where they were told about what happened. About an hour later, Baldwin returned from the hospital. That was when the players found out that when they found their teammates bodies, the two had already passed away.

—Bea Micaller/JMB, GMA News