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DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / June 12) — Thomas Anthony “Tabal” Baldwin, head coach of the Ateneo de Manila University’s (AdMU) basketball team, should talk to the family of the late Rene Clert Baterbonia and his former team at Ateneo de Davao University for “peace of mind,” said Jess Evangelio, Baterbonia’s coach at AdDU.
Baterbonia played for the AdDU high school team that won a gold medal for Davao Region in the 2025 Palarong Pambansa and a silver medal in this year’s edition of the national games. He joined the Ateneo Blue Eagles after graduating from high school this year.
In a press conference Friday afternoon at AdDU Senior High School campus in Bangkal, just outside the chapel where Baterbonia’s remains lay for a wake until Sunday, Evangelio said that Baldwin, who has been “silent,” must see him and the grieving family.
“I hope Rene can be given peace, his family can be given peace of mind,” Evangelio said, noting that he and the family were only able to speak to two assistant coaches on June 10, two days after his former player and teammate Divine Adili died in a drowning incident during training in Dipaculao, Aurora.
“Actually, we’re waiting and hoping, praying that we can see and talk to Coach Tabal even just in private. Talking to Rene’s family, especially the parents, is the least that he can do for his family,” he said mostly in Filipino.
Asked if Baldwin, commonly known as Tab Baldwin, was reaching out to him, Evangelio said no.
Baldwin, along with team manager Christopher Quimoo, have been “on leave” as per AdMU announcement on Thursday, June 11.
“To preserve the total integrity, independence, and fairness of this investigation—and to ensure all participants can cooperate freely without any actual or perceived pressure…,” the statement reads.
On the same day, AdMU clarified that Baldwin’s “silence” was “not a personal decision made independently of the University.”
“The University requested that Coach Baldwin refrain from making public statements to allow the official processes to proceed and the facts to be established before any public discussion of the matter,” according to the statement.
Dream school
Evangelio said AdMU was Baterbonia’s dream school, despite offers from many other Manila schools that eyed him because, for one, he came from AdDU.
Baterbonia, however, did not have a written contract with AdMU prior to the “team building” activity in Dipaculao, Aurora, he said.
Around 9:30 am of Tuesday, June 9, Agusan del Sur Governor Santiago B. Cane Jr. posted a video on Facebook where Rovelyn, Baterbonia’s mother, said she was clueless as to what was going happen in the team building.
“Wala mi nila gi orient nga ‘ma’am pag moanhi imong anak naa mi training ing-ana, ing-ana, ing-ana. Kung gipasabot lang ko nila nga naa na, di ko mosugot. Bahala’g magkalisod mi dli nako siya i-adto didto (They didn’t orient us about the training he would have to go through. Had they explained it to me, I wouldn’t have allowed him to go. Despite our hardships I wouldn’t send him there),” Rovelyn told Cane in the video.
Space for the family
Joevince Eusebio, Baterbonia’s sports agent, said in the press conference that the family needs space for now and would not be able to face the public.
“Siguro kung hindi sila nakakaharap ngayon (If they could not face you now), we would like to, you know, ask for your understanding that they need space right now. They’re still grieving,” he said.
Baterbonia’s family has not faced the media since the arrival of his remains in Davao on Friday.
“The most important thing perhaps is that we have sent Rene back to his house here in Davao, the Ateneo de Davao University,” Eusebio said, adding they will send him “peacefully” to his home province, Agusan del Sur.
Baterbonia’s remains will be transported on Monday to Talacogon, Agusan del Sur where he will be buried on June 24.
A 4Ps beneficiary
The second of seven siblings, Baterbonia was a monitored child under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
In a statement Thursday, DSWD stated in Filipino that “Rene is one of the former 4Ps beneficiaries who successfully left the program after improving conditions and raising the standard of living of their families.”
Before leaving for Manila, Baterbonia was reported to have told Evangelio that he wouldn’t be home for five years because he wanted to earn money to help his family.
Evangelio said Baterbonia was a kind child who wanted to help his family and give his siblings a better life.
‘I failed as a coach’
AdMU released Friday evening a video of Baldwin breaking his silence after the university announced he was “on leave” and was asked to refrain from making public announcements.
In the video posted on Facebook, Baldwin declared he “failed” as a coach entrusted by the parents and families with the athletes’ wellbeing. “I’m sorry. To the depth of my being, I’m sorry.”
He said that despite doing everything to ensure the safety of the athletes, “I failed as a leader, that I failed as a coach… I failed as a friend to Divine and Rene.”
He said that in the last several days, when he was advised not to make public statements, he was praying. “To pray that the Lord embraces our two boys, to pray that the Lord gives peace and comfort, some sense of sanity to the Baterbonia family and the Adili family.”
He added that the public must keep praying for them because his prayer “will never be enough.”
“I wish peace for everybody. I wish for comfort for everybody who was hurting,” he concluded in the video. (Razl EJ Teman/MindaNews)
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