00:00This would be that I will read the statement, the press statement, and then afterwards you can ask me questions.
00:07If I could not answer your questions, my co-lawyers could help me, assist me.
00:12We also have Attorney Eula Arias with us and Attorney Ian Clark.
00:19Imbalsado with us here this afternoon.
00:22And we represent the family of René Clark, Bobet, Batarbonia, and the family of Divine Abilie has likewise signified their
00:32intention to secure likewise our services in order to enforce their rights against any responsible persons for the untimely death
00:41of their beloved son.
00:45Okay.
00:46Let me begin.
00:48Today, Robelyn Batarbonia is still in the process of bringing her son home.
00:53René has not yet been laid to rest.
00:56She remains in grief so profound it defies description.
01:00A grief made heavier by the fact that she learned of her son's death, not from a university official standing
01:07beside her, but from a phone call she almost did not answer, thinking it was a fan ordering jersey merchandise
01:15of her son.
01:16She confirmed that René had truly died through a video call, looking at his body on a screen, alone, and
01:25in transit.
01:27Mahirap kami, pero malaki ang respeto namin.
01:31Sana maintindihan ninyo.
01:33We are poor, but our dignity is immense.
01:36Yes, that dignity demands truth.
01:39The family of Chokpue Mecca Divine Adilie mourns in Nigeria, waiting for answers from a country that promised to take
01:48care of their son.
01:49Their grief is no less.
01:52Their right to the truth is equal.
01:56René Clark Bobet Batarbonia was 18 years old.
01:59He was the second of seven children born of Roviline and René Sr. in Talacogon, Agusan del Sur.
02:08A family that measured hope in the inches their son grew and the trophies he carried home.
02:14He was their greatest hope.
02:17He told his coach in Davao that he would not come home for five years because he was going to
02:23lift his family out of poverty.
02:26He meant it. He was the kind of young man who meant what he said.
02:32He left Talacogon for Manila on June 4, 2026, carrying everything his family had ever dreamed for him.
02:40He was four days into the future when he died.
02:44I repeat, four days.
02:47Chokpue Mecca Divine Adilie was 21 years old.
02:50He came from Nigeria to the Philippines with a dream that only the truly brave carry across an ocean.
02:58He wore the Blue Eagle uniform with genuine pride.
03:02His family received him back in Nigerian soil in a land that never knew him as a Blue Eagle,
03:08only as a boy who left and did not come back.
03:11Those were sons.
03:14On Coach Baldwin's video statement, we acknowledge the same.
03:19We acknowledge Coach Baldwin's appearance and the sincerity of his grief.
03:24But grief is not accountability.
03:27What he expressed was remorse.
03:30What he did not provide were answers.
03:34He did not explain who decided to conduct the activity in the location where it was conducted.
03:41He did not explain what safety precautions were taken or not taken.
03:48He did not explain the sequence of events from 2.30 in the afternoon to the moment emergency services were
03:55called.
03:56He did not account for why the team was positioned away from the resort's lifeguard protected area.
04:03Why resort management's warnings were disregarded.
04:07Or why no water safety personnel were deployed.
04:12According to him, we did everything we could, he said.
04:18With respect, that is not what the facts show.
04:22And an apology offered to a camera without a full account of what happened
04:28is institutional crisis management in human language.
04:32The families need more than sorrow.
04:37They need the truth.
04:40For days after the deaths of Rene and Divine,
04:43Ateneo communicated through statements that its own faculty and educators publicly described as,
04:49and I quote,
04:51nameless,
04:52faceless,
04:53and sterile.
04:55The institution's silence was a choice.
04:58And when the—
04:59and when the prides of the Bohemian Union
05:03They made it a letter.
05:05The intention was a choice.
05:10What Jesus did always can shoot the Colum probably else.
05:11But it's true.
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