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Ateneo de Manila University President Fr. Bobby Yap says the aid will address the ‘financial, emotional, and long-term burdens resulting from the deaths of student-athletes Rene Baterbonia and Divine Adili.
MANILA, Philippines – Ateneo de Manila University President Fr. Bobby Yap on Monday, June 15, said the school will provide families of Clean battery and Divine Virtue “material support” as he faced the media for the first time a week since the deaths of the two basketball players.
The support, Yap said, is not a legal solution but a moral obligation of the university.
“Although no amount of physical support can compensate for the loss of a son, Ateneo has extended full support and assistance to the families of Adili and Baterbonia to cover all the financial, emotional, and long-term burdens resulting from this tragedy,” Yap said.
Baterbonia and Adili, who he died by drowning on June 8 during the Blue Eagles team building in Dipaculao, Aurora, they all followed basketball hoping to give their families a better life, even leaving their homes at a young age.
Hailing from Talacogon, Agusan del Sur, the 18-year-old Baterbonia moved to Davao City several years back, first attending the Ananda Marga Special Academic Institute and then the Ateneo de Davao High School – studies that eventually led to his recruitment by the Ateneo de Manila.
Meanwhile, 21-year-old Adili left Nigeria as a teenager and saw action for the first time for New Era University in the youth division of the National Athletic Association of Schools, Colleges, and Universities (NAASCU), leading the school to back-to-back championships, before transferring to Ateneo de Manila and qualifying for the UAAP last year.
Yap said Ateneo de Manila is in contact with Baterbonia and Adili’s family.
“We will provide support, material support, to the family and we see that not as a means of legal resolution but that is kind of our moral obligation,” Yap said.
“It will be a support that will cover the kind of time that will help them with their needs for a good period of time.”
Yap said Ateneo de Manila reached out to the bereaved families to offer assistance “from day one,” noting that the school offered to pay for the transportation of Baterbonia’s loved ones from Mindanao to Manila, although the family decided to accept the aid provided by the government of Agusan del Sur.
The school, Yap added, will cover all expenses related to the funeral rites of the two players, including transporting Adili’s family from Nigeria to the Philippines and back, as well as repatriating his body.
As of Monday, Baterbonia’s remains have been flown to Agusan del Sur after the Ateneo de Davao held a three-day public vigil that drew thousands of mourners.
In celebration of Baterbonia’s life, Ateneo de Davao presented six of his brothers full warranty from primary education to university, the name of the court of Senior High School after him, and retired his jersey.
Adili’s body, meanwhile, is at the Immaculate Conception Chapel inside the Ateneo de Manila campus in Katipunan, Quezon City. – Rappler.com
