Deaths at Catholic university prompt NZ coach stand-down

Thomas “Tab” Baldwin apologised after the deaths of two students from Ateneo de Manila University – 19-year-old Filipino student Rene Clert Baterbonia and 21-year-old Nigerian student Chukwuemeka Divine Adili – at a training camp in Aurora province on June 8.

The team-building exercise took place in Aurora’s Dipaculao town, a popular surfing spot facing the Pacific Ocean and known for treacherous waves.

In a statement, Ateneo president Fr Roberto Yap SJ said Baterbonia and Adili drowned when the basketball team was “suddenly engulfed by massive waves and a powerful rip current”. He said the tragedy happened during a conditioning exercise in knee-deep water, contradicting speculations that they went farther from the shore.

Given the gravity of the case, Fr Yap said Ateneo’s 15-member board of trustees, which includes eight Jesuit priests, ordered a thorough investigation.

He added that head coach Mr Baldwin and team manager Christopher Quimpo went on leave “to preserve the total integrity, independence and fairness” of the fact-finding inquiry.

The Jesuit university said it “is cooperating fully, transparently and without reservation” with all government investigations.

Multiple government agencies, including the country’s premier detective bureau, have launched investigations to determine if cases can be filed against the persons involved. Even the local labour department has summoned Mr Baldwin, an American-New Zealander, to present proof that he can work in the Philippines.

In the wake of the deaths, the Ateneo president said the coach had been silent for days, upon the university’s request, “to allow the official processes to proceed and the facts to be established before any public discussion of the matter”.

One day after that statement, Ateneo uploaded an eight-minute video message from Baldwin.

In the video, Mr Baldwin apologised for the tragedy, telling the players’ families that he failed to ensure their wellbeing. “I felt I had failed. I failed as a leader, I failed as a coach. I certainly felt like I have failed as a friend to Divine and Rene. And when, later, I faced the team to try to be a leader at that moment, I felt that I failed them, too.”

“To the depth of my being,” said Mr Baldwin, “I’m sorry.”

Mr Baldwin was named Coach of the Year at the Halberg Awards in 2001 and 2002. In 2023, he was inducted into the Basketball New Zealand Hall of Fame.

FULL STORY

Jesuit school under fire for two athletes’ deaths in Philippines (By Paterno Esmaquel II/CruxNow)

Tab Baldwin (2023) | Coach (Basketball New Zealand)