Let us allow the young men of the Ateneo Blue Eagles, mates of Rene Baterbonia and Divine Adili, to heal at their own pace. They are victims, survivors who will have to overcome endless replays of a nightmare that bludgeoned their bodies and killed their friends. They will struggle with survivor’s guilt, which will not spare even those who did their best to save others. 

Their greatest struggle will unfold in the silent arenas of hearts and souls. Their loyalty to a university and a sweet game that once offered so much privilege and adulation now grapples with the reality of abandonment. Memories of triumph now clash with the display of cold rationalization by an institution that basked in the Blue Eagles’ glory but shoved them into the dark to protect institutional interests.

I have seen some folks snarl, “It’s not about you.” But it is about them. (READ: ‘I might not make it’: Ateneo players Kieffer Alas, Sam Reyes faced death in Aurora tragedy)

Their anger is the same fire burning among Ateneo students, alumni, faculty, and non-faculty staff. It stems from knowledge that the administration’s stonewalling deprived them of the tools to properly grieve with the families of Rene Baterbonia and Divine Adili, and to properly pay respects to brethren taken too soon, with all the promise they represented to kin and home communities. 

ALSO ON RAPPLER

• [EDITORIAL] This is not the Ateneo we know
• TIMELINE: The day Divine Adili and Rene Baterbonia died
• [DECODED] In Ateneo drowning incident, Duterte camp reinforces Luzon-Mindanao divide
• Will the UAAP suspend Ateneo?
• Rene Baterbonia chased dreams not only for himself but his family
• Divine determination: Adili set goals beyond basketball

Focus your fire on the coaches and managers, the clueless athletic department, the frozen, reactionary “comm experts,” and university officials. Especially the latter, both religious and secular, who created an atmosphere of monstrous entitlement that allowed certain sports programs to operate as fiefdoms. (READ: Tab Baldwin now under immigration lookout)

They abdicated their oversight responsibility for God knows how long. And then, when the crisis waiting to happen did happen, they again shoved aside values and principles in classic circle-the-wagon fashion, to the extent that they treated their own community as a hostile force.

Think about that: Ateneo students in the middle of a maelstrom. 

On one hand, a public, shaped by generational inequities and weaned on the teat of disinformation, snarling at youth they perceive as representatives of the powers that have crushed them and their bright hopes. 

These youth, meanwhile, were shunned by their own elders, who treated their urgent questions and needs as pesky burdens amid the worst damage-control campaign this country has seen in a long, long time. 

From where I sit, it was mainly about scrambling to promise material aid to the bereaved families while dodging the prime issue of accountability. 

Who thought brotherhood would be best served by having young men — including some with no swimming knowledge — tread rough water (at the best of times) without safety vests, and without any training beyond a lone briefing? 

Did their parents know and sign waivers? Rene’s mother says she didn’t — a claim that has never been denied. Sam Reyes and Kieffer Alas were oblivious to the answer. 

They didn’t know, perhaps because these were things other people did for them. All five athletes who have publicly spoken sketched an atmosphere of dependence on authority — their coaches — that seems outsized even in the context of the discipline required by elite sports. 

Students and teachers were right to ask: In a university so strictly guarded that even an 81-year-old professor has to prove his bona fides every time he enters a building — never mind that he has taught there since his 20s — how could management suddenly turn vague about oversight?

The athletic director told law enforcers that the Blue Eagles team enjoyed autonomy and operated under the aegis of their main benefactor, Smart Communications, under the sports foundation of tycoon Manny V. Pangilinan (MVP). 

The most favored benefactor denied the claim, while acknowledging team manager Epok Quimpo as its employee. 

Ateneo president Father Bobby Yap said the university “owns and manages” the Blue Eagles. 

And, yet, in the closing minutes of the Tuesday town hall meeting, athletics coordinator Benjo Afuang bared devastating news: 

“What was the role of the university athletics in approving the team buildings? THE ANSWER IS NONE (emphasis mine). The answer there is that university athletics had no hand in approving the team-building activities.

“It was asked if the university athletics knew about it, if it was brought to them, and if they sought approval; the answer is no.”

In short, Tab Baldwin, whose vision of creating men involved breaking them, operated an empire outside the reach of accountability. 

Interesting that Father Yap showed no reaction to that. Very strange, since he would go on to say, “the team is owned and managed by Ateneo. So, MVP, the foundation, supports it as a patron, but it is owned and managed by Ateneo. In fact, we will try to release a statement tomorrow about that.”

Aaaaah, another statement, one more in a series that has only raised blood pressures higher with every release. 

The ugly bedrock of all this is that Ateneo’s miserable PR handling has its roots not in operational mishaps but in the official point of view of university officials. 

Yap had to be badgered into naming members of the crisis committee (and stopped at two).

I was struck when the priest raised the issue of “DDS” or when he construed the presence of lawyers in the Baterbonia camp as politicizing the tragedy. In a town hall of anguished folk, one of the excuses given for deficient engagement, as if that mattered to the issue of accountability — or to one’s capacity for compassion.

He also had to be pushed into revealing details about the fact-finding team. 

That’s SyCip Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan, chosen and hired by university management without any consultation from the stakeholders. Totally an outside-hired team, doing an audit with no participation from faculty, student leaders, or parental groups. 

This isn’t the first crisis for Ateneo. But it could be the one that finally unleashes students’ assertion of their rights to decision-making and other matters directly affecting their safety and well-being. 

In their bizarre desire to shy away from any hint of the political, university officials may have just unleashed a major political storm targeting the insider privilege they have long held dear. – Rappler.com