Two Ateneo Blue Eagles basketball players say they genuinely believed they were going to die during a team-building exercise that killed two of their teammates.
Incoming rookie Kieffer Alas and incoming junior Sam Reyes shared their harrowing experience on the Let's Talk with Pia Hontiveros podcast, recounting the June 8 tragedy in Dipaculao, Aurora, that claimed the lives of Divine Adili and Rene Baterbonia.
The players were asked to line up in thigh-deep water for an exercise led by assistant coach Dean Castaño. Then, Reyes said, a series of waves — "bigger than us" — pulled them away from the shore.
Alas, who doesn't know how to swim, remembered being underwater for more than 20 seconds. "At that point, I'd already given up," he said in a mix of Filipino and English. "I was going down and down. I was like going to accept that I might not make it."
He felt his feet touch the sand, jumped, and gasped for air. Everyone else was far away.
Reyes said he tried to help Malcolm Tyler keep Ian Espinosa afloat but fell into "total panic" after swallowing a lot of water. He tried swimming back to shore three times but felt like he wasn't moving. "When I tried for the third time, I started thinking that I wasn't going to make it out of there," he said.
Both players floated to conserve energy and gradually made their way toward the shore, finding each other along the way and helping one another out of the water despite suffering from cramps.
Once most of the team made it back, the grim realization set in: Baterbonia and Adili were missing.
Baterbonia was found unconscious. Team physical therapist Jerick Rueca performed CPR, but Reyes said a medical personnel told Rueca to stop so Baterbonia could be taken to Aurora Memorial Hospital by ambulance. As the ambulance left, Adili was retrieved from the water by teammates and brought to the same hospital in a police vehicle. Both were pronounced dead.
Alas, son of Blue Eagles assistant coach Louie Alas, said he "felt safe" going into the team building because he trusted the coaching staff led by Tab Baldwin, who later resigned. Louie Alas didn't join the trip due to other commitments.
The players had been warned about rip currents — strong, narrow channels of water flowing away from shore — and given tips on how to escape them. But knowledge wasn't enough, especially for non-swimmers like Adili and Espinosa. None of the players wore life vests.
"When I was almost drowning, I was just alone. For me, it felt safety measures were lacking," said Reyes. Alas agreed: "We felt okay. But during the accident itself, that's when we started feeling that kind of way."
Despite surviving, both players have received death threats from people who believe they were responsible for the deaths. They appealed for compassion.
"I hope you guys know that it was really hard for us to speak up. We experienced the trauma as well," said Alas. "To Divine and Rene, we miss you guys. I want to give my condolences to their families."
The tragedy has sparked questions about safety protocols during university team-building activities, with the Ateneo community still mourning the loss of two young athletes.