Ateneo de Manila University student-athletes Rene Clert Baterbonia and Divine Adili — Photos from Rene Baterbonia/Facebook and UAAP
MANILA, Philippines — The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has created a dedicated Task Force to “deeply investigate” all angles in the deaths of Ateneo de Manila University student-athletes Rene Clert Baterbonia and Divine Adili, including “the question of whether foul play is indeed absent.”
This came after the Aurora Police Provincial Office released its initial findings that there was no foul play in the drowning incident in Dipaculao town that perished Baterbonia and Adili last Monday.
READ: Aurora police: No foul play in drowning of Ateneo’s Baterbonia, Adili
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“Our respect for the work of the local police does not displace the Bureau’s duty to satisfy itself, independently and upon the evidence, of every circumstance surrounding this tragedy,” the NBI said in a statement on Thursday.
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“It is important for the public to understand what a finding of ‘no foul play’ does and does not resolve. Such a finding speaks to the absence of intentional harm. It does not, by itself, answer a separate and equally consequential question under our laws: whether these deaths resulted from negligence in the conduct of the activity,” it added.
Based on the NBI’s admin order No. 16 signed by NBI Director Melvin Matibag and dated June 10, the NBI’s task force to probe the Ateneo student-athletes’ death includes five divisions:
Homicide Division
Aurora District Office
Technical Investigation Division
Digital Forensic Laboratory
Medico Legal Division
“The foregoing officials, chiefs, investigation agents, and personnel are hereby mandated to submit initial progress report within 10 days from the issuance of this order and every week thereafter until completion of the investigation,” the order read.
The NBI said the angles currently under examination include “whether the hazards of the location and the condition of the sea were properly assessed, whether adequate safeguards and supervision were in place, and whether the chain of events that claimed these two lives reflects a breach of the duty owed to those entrusted to the institution’s care.”
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The bureau also said the investigation will fully be in coordination with the Philippine National Police and the appropriate authorities.
‘Death caused by reckless or imprudence is a criminal matter’
In the statement, the NBI noted that under Article 365 of the Revised Penal Code, “death caused by reckless or simple imprudence is a criminal matter wholly independent of any intent to harm.”
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“An event may be ‘accidental’ in the sense that no one wished it, and yet remain the product of a failure to exercise the care the law demands,” the NBI pointed out.
“Where an activity is organized and sanctioned by a school for its student-athletes, those who plan, supervise, and conduct it owe the participants the diligence of a good father of a family — the standard of ordinary care fixed by Articles 1173, 2176, and 2180 of the Civil Code,” it also said.
The bureau, meanwhile, clarified that the investigation is not directed at any institution, emphasizing that it is only measured against “conduct and facts.”
READ: DOJ: NBI to also probe death of Ateneo athletes
“A prestigious institution is neither shielded by its stature nor singled out because of it. Those who would cast this tragedy as a struggle between the privileged and the powerless mistake both the law and the purpose of this inquiry,” said the NBI.
Prior to the drowning incident, Baterbonia, 19, recently played in the Palarong Pambansa finals two weeks ago and committed to the Blue Eagles program, while Adili, 21 and a Nigerian foreign student athlete, played in the UAAP Season 88 men’s basketball tournament last year. /das
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