DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 17 June 2026) – The Educators Forum for Development (EFD) Mindanao has called for transparency in the investigation of the deaths of student-athletes Rene Clert Baterbonia and Divine Adili.
Baterbonia and Adili were members of the Ateneo Blue Eagles, the men’s basketball team of Ateneo de Manila University (AdMU), who died from drowning during a “team-building” event in Dipaculao, Aurora on June 8.
The strongly-worded statement was titled “A call for transformative sports development in light of the Ateneo tragedy,” posted 5:09 p.m., June 16 on Facebook.
According to the organization, the grief that was widely felt was “compounded by the lack of transparency on the part of Ateneo de Manila University (AdMU).”
“The school’s curated actions – marked by prolonged silence and rare written statements – underscore the public’s demand for accountability at every level and most especially at the highest levels,” the EFD said.
“Beyond the sorrow, this loss represents the shattering of a young dream—the hope that excellence in basketball might lift a family out of hardship. That dream has now been broken, leaving behind only questions that demand answers.”
EFD said that AdMU should “step up to expectations of transparency and accountability. It is called to genuinely adhere to the Jesuit and Ignatian values of producing ‘men and women for others.’”
“If these values remain unfulfilled, the public will only detest what it perceives as hypocrisy, elitism, lip-service, and a serious disconnect from the people’s sentiments— including those of Rene’s and Divine’s families.”
The organization praised AdMU’s role in advancing transformative education since the time of Martial Law but called the university’s response to the crisis “tone deaf.”
“Now is the time to uphold that place in history rather than present a tone-deaf response to a crisis considered by many Filipinos as symptomatic of a larger social system,” the statement said.
“AdMU should continue to position itself as a transformative force rather than be seen as part of a system that perpetuates our social disparities.”
EFD likewise demanded from the government a national sports system that does not limit itself to feeding corporate interests but instead provide avenues for training for more athletic youth.
The organization said that the deaths of Baterbonia and Adili were not isolated incidents “but a stark indication of the urgent need for transformative education, particularly with the country’s sports development program.”
The country’s national sports development program is “commercialized, not nationalist, and not mass-oriented, a reflection of the general state of our educational system,” the statement read.
The organization criticized what it said was a lack of democratization in sports, which only nurtured a few promising talents instead of providing accessible training opportunities to youth.
“In a mass-oriented sports agenda, sports becomes a tool for promoting people’s health, constructive competition, nation-building, and a source of collective national pride.”
The organization said it sympathized with the demise of the two promising athletes.
“But, in the light of their deaths, are we only to demand that poor kids be allowed to fulfill our telenovela culture– that of fairytales and rags-to-riches stories come true? That Ateneo should be made to account for dashing those dreams?” (Yas Ocampo/MindaNews)
