Ateneo sets up scholarship funds honoring student athletes

MANILA – Ateneo de Manila University has established two scholarship funds named after Divine Adili and Rene Baterbonia, the Blue Eagles basketball players who died in a drowning incident during a team-building activity last month.

University President Fr. Roberto “Bobby” Yap SJ announced the “Blue Eagle Athletic Scholarship Funds” in a memo to the Ateneo community released Thursday.

“Ateneo de Manila University has established two Blue Eagle Athletic Scholarship Funds in honor of our beloved student-athletes, Divine Adili and Rene Baterbonia,” the memo read, describing the initiative as “our promise that their names, their spirit, and the joy they brought to Ateneo athletics will live on in the young Eagles who follow them.”

The funds will go toward financial aid for student-athletes from outside Metro Manila – mirroring the backgrounds of Adili, a Nigerian who played for the Blue Eagles, and Baterbonia, a Palarong Pambansa MVP who grew up in Talacogon, Agusan del Sur before moving to Davao City to study.

According to the memo, each fund will be run by the university’s Office of Admission and Aid and is intended to make sure “Divine’s and Rene’s legacy continues to open doors, lift dreams, and form men and women for and with others.” Those interested in learning more can reach out to the Office of University Development and Alumni Affairs.

“May we, as one community, honor Divine and Rene not only with our remembrance, but with our renewal,” Yap wrote.

Adili and Baterbonia drowned during a Men’s Basketball Team building activity in Dipaculao, Aurora on June 8, a tragedy that triggered separate investigations into what happened.

The National Bureau of Investigation has since recommended criminal charges before the Department of Justice against former head coach Tab Baldwin and 11 others tied to the incident, with possible charges ranging from reckless imprudence resulting in homicide to simple negligence resulting in homicide. The DOJ has said it is consolidating those findings with a related probe from the PNP’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.

Separately, the UAAP this week gave Ateneo more time – moving the deadline from July 15 to July 24 – to submit its own findings on the matter. The league has said any accountability will ultimately be decided using a combination of government findings, Ateneo’s internal fact-finding investigation, and its own rules under the UAAP By-Laws. In the meantime, the coaching staff members implicated in the incident remain barred from all UAAP-related activity.