The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has launched a formal inquiry into the deaths of Ateneo de Manila student-athletes Rene Clert Baterbonia and Divine Adili, who drowned during a team-building activity in Dipaculao, Aurora, on June 8.
“We grieve with their families, their teammates, and the wider community, and we ask that their loss not be reduced to a contest between institutions or social stations,” the Bureau said.
While the Aurora police reported “no signs of foul play,” the NBI stressed its mandate to independently examine “all angles of these deaths, including the question of whether foul play is indeed absent.”
The Bureau underscored that a finding of no foul play “does not, by itself, answer a separate and equally consequential question under our laws: whether these deaths resulted from negligence in the conduct of the activity.” It cited Article 365 of the Revised Penal Code, which criminalizes deaths caused by reckless or simple imprudence.
Investigators are assessing whether organizers met the Civil Code’s “diligence of a good father of a family” standard — including hazard assessment, safeguards, and supervision. “Among the angles now under examination is whether that standard was met,” the statement noted.
The NBI emphasized impartiality: “A prestigious institution is neither shielded by its stature nor singled out because of it. Those who would cast this tragedy as a struggle between the privileged and the powerless mistake both the law and the purpose of this inquiry.”
The Bureau vowed to proceed “with objectivity, without prejudgment, and in full coordination with the Philippine National Police and the appropriate authorities,” urging the public to refrain from speculation.# (ZIA LUNA)
