TALACOGON, Agusan del Sur (MindaNews / 19 June 2026) – Conversations in this town by the Agusan River on Monday, June 8, focused on the 7:37 a.m. Magnitude 7.8 earthquake that triggered the collapse of buildings in General Santos, Sarangani province and other areas. By 6 p.m., the conversations, initially hushed pending confirmation, centered on the earth-shaking news that devastated Talacognons: 18-year old Rene Clert ‘Bobet’ Baterbonia — their son, their pride, their first Most Valuable Player in the Palarong Pambansa — is dead.
A fast-rising basketball star who could swim across the mighty Agusan River, Bobet drowned in faraway Dipaculao, Aurora facing the Pacific Ocean, while on a “team building” activity of the Ateneo de Manila University’s basketball team.
Bobet arrived on June 4 at the ADMU campus in Quezon City as an incoming freshman and a new recruit of the Blue Eagles, eager to spread his wings and soar high but ended up dead four days later, pulled by a rip current into deeper waters.
Bobet’s family learned about his death late afternoon but without details to help them understand what happened.
In the days that followed, the death of a poor boy from the small town of Talacogon, Agusan del Sur, would shake the core foundations of the elite Jesuit university – ADMU — and create cracks, though physically invisible, within a campus that sits on a seismically active area.
For many within the ADMU, the long silence that accompanied the seeming lack of compassion of the administration, was as disastrous as a Magnitude 7.8 earthquake.
“Fortress Ateneo must fall”
As lawyer Tony La Viña says in his June 19 MindaNews column, Riverman’s Vista, the culture of institutional self-protection, what many have long called Fortress Ateneo (de Manila University), has done real damage. It has made the school smaller, colder, and less trusted by the very communities it claims to serve.”
There must be accountability, he stressed, personnel changes in ADMU and compensation must be given to the families. He said ADMU should seriously consider withdrawing from the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) for one season, “and yes, we must dismantle Fortress Ateneo.”
“Fortress Ateneo,” referring to ADMU, is not just a management failure but “a contradiction of everything this university teaches. Magis, the call to do more and be more. Cura personalis, care for the whole person. Being persons for others. Trust in people. Love for the poor,” La Viña said.
“Fake news”
Talacogon Vice Mayor Elvin Maligsa recalls that on June 8, he heard reports, though unconfirmed, that something happened to Bobet. Like many Talacognons, the news that Bobet drowned when he was a “very good swimmer,” was unthinkable.
But as the afternoon progressed and more hushed conversations were passed around, Maligsa decided to proceed to the house of the Baterbonias at around 5 p.m. Bobet’s father, Rene or Boboy, was his high school classmate.
“Winork out pa kung ano talagang nangyari” (What really happened was still being worked out), he said.
Lloyd Curato Mondejar, Bobet’s uncle, said he heard the news around 5 p.m. “Dili ko makatuo. Abi nako fake news” (I could not believe it. I thought it was fake news).
“Emergency”
In Davao City, Bobet’s coach at the Ateneo de Davao University (ADDU) Senior High School, Jess Evangelio, told Bilyonaryo News Channel’s “On Point” that he received a call at 3:40 p.m. from the Blue Eagles team manager Epok Quimpo that there was an emergency, that Bobet drowned but was on his way to the hospital. “I was praying na parang okay lang lahat,” he said. At around 4:20 p.m., he received a call that Bobet was dead. He said he reminded the caller to inform Bobet’s family in Talacogon.
Evangelio was the first person close to Bobet who was contacted by the Blue Eagles.
The coach said he planned to call Bobet’s parents at around 5 p.m. after the parents shall have been informed by ADMU.
Apparently, after Rene’s mother, Rovelyn, received the call about her son’s drowning, she immediately called Coach Jess. “Nag-iyakan po kami” (We cried), he said.
By midnight, Bobet’s parents were still waiting for details. But no details came. Just the painful fact that “patay na si Bobet” (Bobet is dead).
“Bakit?”
Because ADMU did not give them details on Monday evening and did not communicate with them the next morning, Bobet’s parents had to find a way to fly to Manila to see their son. The provincial governor sponsored their fare.
By the time they arrived in Manila afternoon of June 9, reports had spread on social media that what happened in Dipaculao was not team building but hazing and that the players were made to use 20-kilo ankle weights. This was later clarified that no ankle weights were used. Bobet’s teammates would also say days later that it was not hazing.
But Bobet’s mother, Rovelyn, had so many questions.
“Ba’t napunta ang anak ko doon sa dagat eh basketball naman siya, hindi swimming,” she told reporters upon arrival in Metro Manila afternoon of June 9.
Rovelyn had so many unanswered “Bakit” (why). But no one from ADMU came to answer her Why’s, she said.
Unaccompanied
What was also very painful for her was when she learned her son was transported from Dipaculao to Quezon City, a travel of at least five hours, without anybody from ADMU accompanying him.
“Binyahe nila anak ko, hindi man lang nila binihisan, walang damit, yung shorts basa” (They transported my son, they didn’t even put on his clothes, he was just wearing wet shorts), she told reporters.
On June 15, exactly a week after the tragedy, ADMU President Fr. Roberto Yap said that while they chose “not to immediately broadcast our actions, our commitment on the ground was immediate and full. From Day One, the university reached out to provide full support to the families.”
He said ADMU offered to shoulder the round-trip travel expenses of Baterbonia’s family from Agusan del Sur and that the same assistance was extended to the family of Adili traveling from Nigeria and the cost of transporting his remains back to his country.
“We are truly sorry for not being quick at informing the public of the developments which have led to perceptions of inaction,” he said.
A promise to donate computers
At the Talacogon Central Elementary School (TCES) on June 16, master teacher Jeanette Martin, who was Grade 6 teacher to Bobet and his younger brother Rhenz, and was also a teacher of their father, Rene, recalled how shocked she was, like the rest of the Talacognons, when she learned about Bobet’s death shortly before 6 p.m.
She had waited until 2 that morning for Bobet’s funeral convoy to pass by Barangay Del Monte, where she lives.
Martin said Bobet visited TCES on June 1, just after the Palarong Pambansa 2026 that Agusan del Sur hosted, to help in the Brigada Eskwela, a yearly clean-up of classrooms before classes would open on June 8.
Bobet, she said, would always come for the Brigada because he had younger siblings enrolled here.
Last year, also in early June, Bobet helped clean her classroom. Martin recalled that because he was a tall person, Bobet as a student, was always tasked to clean up areas that his classmates could not reach. As a 6’4” basketball player, he helped Martin last year clean the ceiling with a broom.
This year, Bobet promised his teachers he would donate computers to the school after five years.
Martin said some of their alumni have offered to donate computers to fulfill Bobet’s promise.
Uninterrupted schooling
Bobet did not finish his Grade 6 at the TCES but in Lagao, General Santos City “tungod sa kawad-on”(because of poverty), Martin said. She and other Talacognons close to the family, said some of the Baterbonia children have had to move to General Santos as their uncle, the eldest brother of their father, provided support for their schooling.
Martin recalled that from Grades 1 to 5, Bobet was also moving from Talacogon to General Santos and back to Talacogon.
She said Rovelyn, who sells fish with her husband in the public market, was active in the Parents-Teachers Association (PTA) and would always tell other parents not to make poverty an excuse for not sending their children to school.
The Baterbonias have seven children. Bobet was the second child and the first to take on his father Rene’s sports: basketball. Rene was a basketball player. The eldest, Rubeyan, is also very tall, but prefers archery to basketball.
That her children should finish school is what she wishes for them. This explains the transfers between Talacogon and General Santos City. Schooling must not be interrupted, even if it meant sending some of her children to General Santos.
Scholar-athlete
After Grade 6, Bobet returned to Talacogon to pursue his Grade 7 and 8 as a 4Ps monitored student. A coach from Davao City saw his potential as a basketball player and offered him a scholarship at the Ananda Marga Special Academic Institution (AMSAI) for Grades 9 and 10.
In 2024, the Ateneo de Davao University-Senior High School recruited him for the Blue Knights. ADDU was the 30th university nationwide that expressed interest to recruit him, Coach Evangelio said on the last day of Bobet’s wake at the ADDU-SHS on June 14.
Bobet went for ADDU-SHS on condition that Rhenz, who was graduating from Grade 6, would be a scholar, too, he said. The scholarships for him and Rhenz meant less financial burden for their parents and an assurance that they could continue schooling.
Bobet spent senior high – Grades 11 and 12 – at the ADDU-SHS, graduated in April and had just moved to ADMU, his “dream school” according to Evangelio, for freshman and the Blue Eagles.
At least 23,000 persons lined up to pay their respects to Bobet during the three-day wake from June 12 to 14 at the Christ the King Chapel of the ADDU-SHS.
ADDU President Fr. Karel San Juan announced on June 13 that ADDU would provide scholarships for Bobet’s six siblings to fulfill his “pangandoy” (dream) to help them finish school. ADDU also facilitated a donation mechanism for the family as proposed by many and with the consent of the family.
On June 14, San Juan announced at the end of the mass, that the covered courts in the ADDU-SHS would be named RBBCC for Rene ‘Bobet’ Baterbonia Covered Courts.
While ADMU was holding its press briefing on June 15, crowds from Davao to Agusan turned up along the 246-kilometer journey from Davao City to Talacogon to pay their respects, a number of them chanting “MVP, MVP” and “Hustisya, Hustisya.”
It took 18 hours (including a five-hour stopover in Panabo City for services for Baterbonia’s remains) to reach Talacogon. The convoy left Davao City at around 8 a.m. on June 15, and arrived at the municipal gym here in Barangay San Agustin at 1:40 a.m. on June 16.
Rovelyn said she was overwhelmed by the thousands of fellow Mindanawons who lined up along the highway, “gikan one year old hangtod 90 years old” (from one year old to 90 years old).
Values
Years before Bobet would become a student of a Catholic school that prides itself with Ignatian values of cura personalis and magis, Bobet had lived these values, molded by his parents, his clan, and his community in Talacogon.
The Baterbonias live in a small, simple wooden house behind the San Estanislao Kostka Parish, both located a few meters away from the river. From Bobet’s house, one can go down a few steps to swim in the river. The river also hosts floating houses, designed by the Manobos to ensure that when the waters rise, the houses will just float.
Rovelyn or Bebet, a Manobo, lived in a floating house in La Paz, Agusan del Sur, Chedith Bosque, her childhood friend and neighbor, told MindaNews at Bobet’s wake at the municipal gym on Tuesday afternoon.
Bobet’s mother was not only active at the PTA, she was also active in the GKK (Gagmayng Kristiyanong Katilingban or Basic Ecclesial Communities).
Consolita Campos, officer-in-charge of the parish office, said Rovelyn was active in the FG (Family Group). Five to seven FGs constitute a GKK.
The child Bobet, she told MindaNews, was one of her students in catechism. The teenage Bobet had always been described as “buotan” (good), “dili hambugero” (humble), family-oriented, would think of others first before himself, and would personally go to church or through his mother, “para magpamisa”(to sponsor a mass) before and after competitions, whether or not he wins.
The first Catholic church in what is now Agusan del Sur was established in Talacogon in 1874, according to church records Campos showed. There is an entry that says it was in Bunawan town in 1635 but Campos said Bunawan was still part of Talacogon then.
June 8 as special day
The Sangguniang Bayan (Municipal Council) of Talacogon has passed a resolution expressing their condolences to the family, and a resolution seeking justice for Bobet.
Vice Mayor Maligsa said they have also passed an ordinance declaring June 8 every year as a special day to honor Bobet.
It will not be a holiday, he said, but the local government unit will ensure there are activities that day in memory of Bobet. He said the ordinance also urges residents to offer five minutes of silence or prayer for Bobet.
Bobet’s wake at the municipal gym is until June 23. He will be laid to rest in the new municipal cemetery in Barangay Labnig on June 24, after the 8 a.m. mass at the gym.
He will be the first Talacognon to be buried there. (Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews)
