The MVP Sports Foundation (MVPSF) has clarified that its involvement with the Ateneo Men’s Basketball Team is limited to financial support and does not include management, coaching, recruitment, or player development functions.
The statement from MVPSF president Al Panlilio came after the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) said it would subpoena officials of Ateneo de Manila University and Smart Communications as part of its investigation into the deaths of Ateneo basketball players Rene Baterbonia and Divine Adili.
CIDG director Maj. Gen. Alexander Morico II said investigators were looking into information that the Ateneo basketball program was allegedly being run by a foundation linked to Smart Communications.
“As with all of the sports programs we support, the MVPSF’s role is limited to providing funding,” Panlilio said. “The foundation does not own or manage the Ateneo Men’s Basketball Team. It does not run the team’s programs’ and athletes’ management, coaching, recruitment, and player development.”
Panlilio also addressed the role of Epok Quimpo, a Smart Communications employee who has served as team manager of the Ateneo men’s basketball squad.
“Mr. Epok Quimpo is an employee of Smart Communications. But we understand he has served with the Ateneo Men’s Basketball Team in his own personal capacity over the past full decade — as an alumnus of Ateneo, and as a former member of the Ateneo Men’s Basketball Team, who was invited by Ateneo to be its team manager,” Panlilio said.
“In that engagement, he has always been under the authority and direction of the University and its officials,” he added.
The statement comes as multiple investigations continue into the deaths of Baterbonia, 19, and Adili, 21, who drowned during a team-building activity in Dipaculao, Aurora on June 8.
The CIDG has said it is looking into possible criminal liabilities, including homicide and violations of the Anti-Hazing Act, while Ateneo has formed an independent fact-finding panel composed of external legal and technical experts.
Ateneo president Fr. Roberto Yap earlier said the university would fully cooperate with all investigations and that the independent panel would report directly to the university’s board of trustees.
Panlilio said the foundation supports efforts to determine what happened.
“The MVP Sports Foundation stands by all it has offered and provided for the development of Filipino athletes. And we stand with all Filipinos not only in mourning the deaths of Divine Adili and Rene Baterbonia, but in working to surface all truths behind this tragedy, reaching out to their families, and affirming our continuing Mission to use sports as a platform for Filipinos to achieve excellence and pursue their dreams,” he said.
