ADMU Blue Eagles teammates: “We were open arms to Rene”
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews /17 June 2026) – There is no truth to allegations that Rene Clert ‘Bobet’ Baterbonia’s teammates at the Ateneo de Manila University’s Blue Eagles hated him or didn’t accept him, two of his teammates said.
“I just wanna say that those people who commented na parang we hated and parang we don’t accept Rene, we were open arms to Rene. I personally, I wanted to know him better because during those days (before the tragedy), we were having fun,” said teammate Sam Reyes, who was among Baterbonia’s roommates during the “team building” in Dipaculao, Aurora.
“Especially po yung mga Pinoy like us kasi there’s like a couple pure Pinoys po. Naging close na po talaga kami tapos sumali din po si Rene, like sinama po namin. We were really getting close po in the short time na nakasama po namin siya,” he said.
Reyes and Kieffer Alas, narrated what happened in Dipaculao in a 90-minute interview on “Let’s Talk”with Pia Hontiveros on Monday. It aired on Tuesday on The Pod Network.
Baterbonia and another teammate, Divine Adili of Nigeria, drowned in Aurora on June 8, four days after the player from Ateneo de Davao University (ADDU) Blue Knights, an incoming freshman at ADMU and new recruit in the Blue Eagles team, arrived in the ADMU campus.
Reyes, 21, and Alas, 19, nearly drowned. Both thought they were going to die. Other teammates also thought it was their end.
Alas’ jersey is number 1, Reyes’ is number 34, and 35 for Baterbonia.
On the bus to Dipaculao, Reyes said Baterbonia was seated behind him. Alas recalled most of them just slept through the travel from ADMU campus to Dipaculao on Sunday, June 7.
Reyes and Alas clarified there were no ankle weights used, contrary to reports that spread over social media. They also said the activity was not an initiation rite or hazing.
“Coach Tab (Baldwin) was saying that the team building was for us to get closer and to build that mental toughness,” Reyes said.
The two said they had meetings in Manila before the travel and that Coach Tab explained “about rip currents and how to get out of rip,” Reyes said.
“Yeah, we had a pretty long discussion about it. Like swim vertical to the shore when there’s a rip current. And they warned us about the uneven sand. Like you can randomly go back down and up and up,” Alas said.
They said the team was “pretty excited” about the Dipaculao trip.
In Dipaculao, Alas and Reyes were roommates, along with Baterbonia and Adili, and three others.
Just before dinner on Sunday, the two recalled they were tasked to clean the beach of debris in preparation for their activities the next day: an early morning run and dodgeball.
“So, we were cleaning the debris. There was a picture of Rene. We wrote his name there,” said Alas.
Coach Tab announced during the dinner that they had to give up the phones for the duration of the activity.
They recalled there was a session where they were asked to introduce themselves and say a fun fact about them.
Baterbonia’s fun fact was that he liked watching Mukbang videos, Alas said.
“Mukbang” is a combination of two Korean words – muk and bang – and means eating while broadcasting.
“Like they eat the food. They chew it right on the microphone and stuff,” Alas said of Baterbonia’s fun fact.
On Monday morning, June 8, they were awakened before sunrise, were given a banana each before they went jogging. Breakfast was after the jog.
“It was actually pretty good because we have a goal. Everyone has to run four kilometers,” and they all passed.
For breakfast, Reyes recalled that “us vets were assigned to cook the breakfast meals and the rookies were assigned to fix the table.”
They had a break after breakfast and played dodgeball before lunch.
When Hontiveros asked about a photo circulating on social media with teammates gathered at a long table while Baterbonia was by his lonesome, Alas and Reyes said this was lunchtime.
“Ang una po non, the table was full and then the Fil-Ams moved the space for Rene to join.” Baterbonia joined them at the other table.
After lunch they had an hour’s rest before the “water activity.”
“10-minute thing”
“It was actually pretty simple. It was supposed to be like a 10-minute thing,” said Alas. “So, like, our coach is on the beach and then, this is the shore. And then, our coach is just here. He’s going to walk here for 5 minutes and 5 minutes back.”
The players were just supposed to mirror him.
“So, this is Coach Dean. Then, we lined up like, parang from the shore. Then, yung pinakadulo po, papuntang open water,” said Reyes.
The water was thigh-deep, they said.
“At first, it was even. Then, when we walked a few meters, it got deeper a bit,” Reyes said.
When Hontiveros asked if they were walking parallel to the shore, the reply was in the affirmative.
The mirroring was “less than one minute,” they said.
“We were just starting. … Parang konting meters lang po then biglang lumakas yung mga alon.”
“Bigger than us”
The wave was “bigger than us,” Reyes said.
“There’s like a time frame, like one wave then wait a couple seconds then the other one,” said Alas.
“At first, we were having fun, laughing on the first wave,” said Reyes.
The water went up from the thigh level to the chest. “We thought the wave just made hakot (hauled) the sand or maybe it just pulled us,” Alas added.
The second wave was “halos the same height as the first,” recalled Alas.
When the second wave happened, they recalled, “bigla pong may wave na sumunod-sunod na po starting from the second wave.” Reyes said.
“The same height as the second wave. Similar heights. Similar heights,” said Alas.
The second and third waves were like one after the other but the third to fourth, there was a bit of an interval but “still big.”
“Everyone started screaming”
There were 20 of them and the distribution was those who were farthest from shore were those who knew how to swim very well: EJ who stands 6’7 and Malcolm who stands 6’10”, Sam and to his right, Rene.
Divine was in the middle, nearer the shore.
Alas noted that on the second wave, somebody was already screaming for help. It was Kyle.
Reyes said they were riding the first wave, not knowing “hinahatak na kami” (we were being pulled) towards the sea.
On the third wave, “that’s when everyone started screaming na po… because we couldn’t reach the (floor).”
For the 6’10” Malcom, the water was already a few centimeters from his mouth.” For those shorter than Malcolm, “your feet could not touch the ground anymore.”
“Coach John was screaming at us to go to the right (towards the shore) but kahit anong gawin po namin, di kaya po. We were getting in the current,” said Reyes.
“Parang all of us were panicking na po and we didn’t know what to do. Kung baga po. parang nag-scatter po kami in the water. It’s like cluster, cluster po yung kasama,” he added.
Going to die
“Neither Alas nor Reyes recall seeing Rene at that point.
“I didn’t see Rene,” Reyes said.
“I only saw Divine,” said Alas.
Everyone in the team tried to help each other, particularly those who do not know how to swim.
Reyes swam to help another teammate but waves were still coming and he could no longer feel the floor. He had gone too deep and far from shore. He panicked as he was trying to swim back to shore but felt like he was not making any progress. He thought he was going to die. He felt like giving up.
Alas, who doesn’t really know how to swim, also thought he was going to die.
When they got out of the water, there was no first responder, just a security guard of the resort and one lifeguard.
They only had two salbabidas, the resort has one, a surfboard, too, and three volleyballs to help with floating. There were no life vests.
Rene found first
Rene was the first to be found.
The players rushed to where he was and helped carry him to shore.
It was around 30 minutes after the waves broke up the team.
Reyes said the last time he saw Rene was when “we were still like having fun.”
Somebody attempted to do CPR on Rene but was stopped by the medic who put Rene on a stretcher and rushed him to the ambulance.
Alas said the only one he heard that had pulse po was Divine but the responders brought him to the hospital on a police vehicle.
Reyes said he could hardly sleep that evening. The trauma of having to see two teammates dead, and nearly losing your life, was too much to bear.
“I feel guilt lang po,” he told Hontiveros, “kasi Rene was beside me and parang I felt na I could’ve done more, na para di siya malunod, so it was eating me alive na.”
He said that night in Aurora, around midnight, he tried to sleep but “I would still see his face like when I was carrying him, I would see his, I saw his face then when I like tried to sleep, I would see his face tapos nung nakatulog po ako for a bit, I woke up suddenly around 3 a.m. and then parang in disbelief because we were roommates – Rene and Divine. I would like see them in their beds like last time I saw them so parang I just went out to take a breath but parang I was just wandering, walking aimlessly po, parang I was thinking that this is just a bad dream and … I have to wake up from it.”
Social media has been blaming them for the death of their teammates, they said.
Some netizens have accused them of jealousy, claiming Baterbonia was a threat to the careers of his teammates.
“It’s just hard po that the comments that they are saying, that we’re just jealous na we did it because we’re jealous. It’s just killing us kasi we were there, we lost two of our brothers. Parang sobrang sakit po kasi na parang nabuhay nga po kami pero parang pinapatay po kami,” Reyes said as he wiped his tears.
For Alas, “it’s like going through two deaths po. The first one is losing our two teammates. Then now being criticized for their deaths. We lost them, we witnessed what happened then I don’t know, then every social media person or anybody, they’re just putting the blame on us. It’s just hard to put into words but this is what we have been feeling this past week.”
Reyes said they have been getting death threats on social media.
“Every social media we have and there’s like so much, like on my end po, there’s like so much people putting the blame on me and there’s been so much videos going viral saying na ako na lang kulang to speak para they can get justice … to obtain justice or something and some people are saying na naiinggit lang kami. It’s just too much. Kaka-19 ko lang po… I didn’t think I would be experiencing this,” Alas said.
When Hontiveros asked if they think the blame and threats they are receiving would not have happened if the ADMU administration ”had been releasing more information of been more open,” Alas said, “honestly, yes.”
“Speculations and rumors and threats and hate towards us players was due to the, maybe not enough information (from ADMU)” so people were making all sorts of allegations and making stories from the photos, he said. (Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews)
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