THE REMAINS of student-athlete Rene Clert Baterbonia are scheduled to be flown home on Friday, June 12, 2026, as the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) launches an independent criminal probe into the tragic drowning incident that also claimed the life of his teammate, Divine Adili.
A wake will be held at the Ateneo de Davao University Senior High School campus, where local faculty, students, and teammates are expected to pay their final respects.
Meanwhile, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) launched an independent criminal probe into the deaths of two Ateneo de Manila University student-athletes, warning that a lack of intentional foul play does not absolve organizers of potential criminal liability under the law.
In a statement released Thursday, the NBI announced the deployment of a dedicated task force to investigate the June 8 drowning incident in Dipaculao, Aurora, which claimed the lives of student-athletes Rene Clert Baterbonia and Divine Adili during a school-sanctioned team-building activity.
The agency’s intervention directly challenges the initial findings of the Aurora Police Provincial Office, which quickly ruled out foul play.
“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 stated.
The bureau clarified that while local police found no signs of intentional harm, the task force is scrutinizing whether gross negligence was involved. Under Article 365 of the Revised Penal Code, death caused by reckless or simple imprudence is a criminal offense entirely independent of intent.
Because Ateneo de Manila sanctioned the team-building activity, the NBI emphasized that those who planned and supervised the trip owed the students “the diligence of a good father of a family”—the legal standard of ordinary care required under the Civil Code.
“The law fixes a single standard of care that binds every organizer of every activity, and it is measured against conduct and facts alone,” the bureau asserted. “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.”
