Inconvenient truth

The deadly team building did not only kill Rene Baterbonia, it is also killing the family he left behind, especially his mother, who has died several times over. For losing his son, no mother can fathom the death of her child, for whatever reason. It defies natural order of things, parents are supposed to go ahead of their children and not the other way around, otherwise known as predecease.

For not knowing how her son drowned. The official statement was vague, or carefully written, all too conscious and anticipatory of legal implications. The school may not owe the public what exactly happened. Immediately after. It may not have known too. Or it knew but didn’t know how to handle the truth.

Regardless, the mother certainly deserves to instantly know what exactly happened, otherwise known as raw information, that original, un-tampered, or better yet, un-sanitized set of facts. From those around. Curiously, the teammates who survived did not say anything right after the incident. Or accident. Or whichever way it is called, it still killed a 19-year-old.

They could be traumatized too. Not yet ready to talk, or were prepared to talk. There’s a huge difference. One speaks from authentic memory, the other speaks from defensive armory. Two teammates admitted to have been briefed by their coach about the rip current and how to get out of it, days before the team building.

This means beach hazard in the area was known to them, the coach especially. Was it for contingency or did the coach purposely put his wards in the rip current probability, purportedly to test their physical and mental toughness. Or their mortality. Deadly game, it was.

Again, the mother deserves to know the truth, regardless of who gets hurt. If there’s anyone who should be hurt, it’s her, the deepest, for entrusting the future of her child to an institution only to be taken away from her forever. She declined the apology, it will never bring back the life of her son. Death is irreversible. Those who should apologize and tell her what exactly happened should do it personally. Whatever it is, communicate with a human face, regardless of how difficult it is to humanize monstrous negligence and insensitivity.