This has been a disaster in crisis management and damage control for Ateneo, its administration, and whoever it is that is handling its external communication.
Only, this was a crisis that should not have been treated like a public relations campaign that went awry. This was not a simple case of a large corporation recalling some substandard product that had found its way onto grocery shelves and then issuing a press release apologizing for the oversight and promising to conduct an internal investigation.
Rather, this was a human tragedy that necessitated compassion and called for a deep commitment to social justice. The latter is one of the tenets of Ignatian Spirituality, of what it means to be men and women for others.
Even in death, Rene Baterbonia and Divine Adili deserved cura personalis, “care for the whole person,” but instead, they were deprived of this very foundation of Jesuit education.
Alas, there was no real external communication coming down from the hills of Loyola and out of the comfortable exclave of its campus.
Not to Rene’s mother, Rovelyn, as she herself revealed while still desperately seeking an explanation for Rene’s untimely death.
Not to Divine Adili’s father, Elias, whose questions regarding the circumstances behind his son’s drowning have not been answered.
(C) UAAP Season 88 Media Team
Not to the Ateneo community, as I have found out from some faculty and staff.
(C) Bea Pador/The GUIDON
Not to a country that has been following this ongoing catastrophe, one that has left people feeling as though they, too, have lost sons and brothers in Rene and Divine.
Communication in this situation should have been immediate, transparent, and, most important of all, honest. This was Ateneo’s moral obligation to the families of Rene and Divine.
Instead, what came out was fragmented information that appeared pre-screened and obfuscated, seemingly to make the reality of what transpired wash away in the billowing waves of Dipaculao, Aurora.
(C) Ateneo de Manila University
For an institution that claims to mold students to stand and fight for the truth, Ateneo’s actions were nothing more than a public relations smokescreen that led away from it.
Genuine public relations communication is anchored in the clarity and sincerity of the message. Anything less is just an attempt to deceive the recipient of the message.
When the message sounds intentionally unclear, it invites speculation, wild theories, and premature judgment. People will see right through the deception. Some people, despite Ateneo’s apparent underestimation, are actually capable of seeing through it.
Which is precisely why Ateneo has found itself in a quagmire unlike a soggy, muddy Bellarmine field. By teetering between silence and evasiveness, Ateneo opened the floodgates to public interpretation.
Some defenders and alumni have argued that the university does not owe the public transparency. Its obligation is to the families of the victims.
This point does not stand on two levels.
First, Ateneo can no longer use this line of defense when it was the one that set the tone for the lack of transparency surrounding the issue. They controlled the information coming out, they possibly lawyered up the team, and they have not allowed anyone from among the coaching staff, management, and players to speak up and shed light on what really happened.
Second, it shows how Ateneo and some alumni are wretchedly out of touch with reality.
Tragedies such as this are not for public consumption simply because people want something to post on social media.
Rene and Divine were young men with big dreams whose journeys resonated with people. The fact that they were both part of one of the most high-profile athletic programs in the country, in a sport that is dearest to the hearts of Filipinos, magnifies tenfold the pain of their demise.
When Rene became a Blue Eagle, Ateneo basked in the media attention, with the power of its recruitment lauded for landing another blue-chip rookie.
Now that it has lost Rene in an accident that could very well have been avoided, it has suddenly become averse to facing the media and the public.
Owning up to what happened, even if initially only to the families of Rene and Divine, would have been the decent, human response expected from an institution whose mission is to form young men and women to become responsible, God-fearing, truth-seeking members of the community.
It was only on Thursday, four days after the deaths, that a signed statement from university president Fr. Bobby Yap, SJ, was released, its words carefully crafted like the work of a marketing and communications professional.
Unfortunately, Ateneo not only failed Rene and Divine and their families, but also the students in its care who believe in what Ateneo stands for.
Ateneo cannot claim to be a voice in society that calls for social accountability and then tell the rest of society to look away when the accountability being demanded comes from its own ranks.
