MANILA, Philippines — The UAAP has permanently banned former Ateneo coach Tab Baldwin from the league and barred him from entering any UAAP competition venue over the drowning incident in Dipaculao, Aurora, that killed student-athletes Rene Baterbonia and Divine Adili.
The league announced the sanctions Friday after reviewing Ateneo’s internal investigation and the publicized reports from the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and the National Bureau of Investigation.
Baldwin, who has since resigned as Ateneo’s head coach, received a nonappealable ban.
The UAAP also sanctioned several Ateneo team officials involved in the incident. Team manager Christopher John Quimpo, assistant coaches Dean Caesar Castaño, Sandro, Nicholas Romero Soriano, Reynaldo Jacinto Jr., Hernan Ameer Domingo, Caesar Vincent, Javellana Elumba and Grant Dearns, along with physical therapist John Eric Rue, received bans from UAAP participation.
Unlike Baldwin’s sanction, their bans can be appealed.
The league determined that the student-athletes who survived the drowning were victims and cleared them to compete in the upcoming UAAP Season 89 men’s basketball tournament.
“The Ateneo men’s basketball team shall remain eligible to compete in UAAP Season 89,” the league said, citing the survivors’ expressed desire to honor their fallen teammates through competition.
The UAAP, however, required Ateneo to conduct a “comprehensive reassessment” of the men’s basketball team’s organizational structure and management as well as its relationship with the university’s overall athletics program.
The reassessment serves as a precondition for Ateneo’s participation in Season 89.