The Manila Times
MANILA, Philippines — Former Ateneo de Manila University basketball players urged the public to be careful with unverified claims as the deaths of Rene Baterbonia and Divine Adili sparked speculations about the said “team building.” Mike Nieto, Shaun Ildefonso, Anton Assistio, and Shaggy Allmond’s podcast resurfaced online, in which they discussed the “military-like” training of head coach Tab Baldwin. Netizens were quick to assume that the death of the young talents was not due to an unfortunate incident, but it was partly because of Ateneo’s initiation of basketball players. Allmond responded to this speculation, where Ildefonso, Nieto, and Assistio reposted. “There is absolutely no way that this had anything to do with 'initiation.” The team goes there for the sole purpose of conditioning, getting stronger, and becoming a closer team due to the hardships faced during that specific beach training,” Allmond wrote. “Between working your ass off on that beach and a little bit of time to rest and eat, there is no time to even think of doing any initiation there. Each player is so tired from the work they put in the whole day that they wouldn’t have enough energy to do something like that.” In a resurfaced video, Nieto was describing Baldwin’s style of training in Aurora. “They will bring us to a hidden resort, then they will wake us up, and it’s like we are soldiers for a week. There’s a sudden alarm at 3 a.m., then we will do lunges on the sand, and then we will swim. Of course, some of us don’t know how to swim,” Nieto shared on the podcast. “Since some of our teammates don’t know how to swim, we can’t leave them alone. There was this one time with Gideon Babilonia… You have to run on the sand, then swim, but since he doesn’t know he was rescued by our coach,” he added. Allmond said on his recent post that what they shared on that podcast was taken out of context. “Don’t take those interview clips from some of my previous teammates out of context, and spin your own story out of it for content. Yes, that was probably the most physically and mentally draining training that I’ve ever experienced, but there was nothing done to us that would put us in immediate danger.” He ended his post by extending his deepest condolences and a call to the public to allow the families to grieve. “The only people there are the team, coaches, and staff. They are the ones who know the truth, so let’s let things take their natural course before making horrid accusations.”
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