The others

Two boys dead, and the venerable institution that is Ateneo is in a shambolic mess.

Full disclaimer: I am not from Ateneo, so I have no bias for it. I do have a handful of relatives who attended, plus multiple friends who are proud alumni. I’m just an outsider looking at the uproar, but Ateneo says they espouse the “man for others” mantra, so this should be fine. I’m one of the others.

It is heartening to see many Ateneans call out their alma mater for the stunning failures in crisis management that unfolded after the news came out that two young men had drowned. This whole mess was labeled a press relations disaster. But Ateneo’s problem is more than just PR. The enormity of the damage it is wreaking on itself is multi-faceted --and incalculable.

There is the expected emotional and psychological toll on the other players who witnessed the tragedy, who lost comrades, and who suddenly experienced a turbulent shift in world perspective from cocky student athletes to traumatized kids. The priests and administration must be in crisis mode. Now is when lawyers and advisers are being consulted, when decisions are being made as to whom to protect and whom to cast out. Whose legal fees will be shouldered, and who will have to be told to hire their own counsel (soon to become ‘others’).

There is also the peripheral world of college basketball: junior staff, assistant coaches, maybe even hangers-on, who probably don’t know now what they’re going to do next, and whether they still have jobs (or whether they’re going to be implicated for their knowledge or participation in the event).

It’s not even just the prized basketball program or their future participation in collegiate basketball that Ateneo has to contend with (and who cares about whether other schools will boo the school or applaud the players in future outings).

There is the loss of trust. And not just from parents of student athletes. Even regular parents who have been dreaming of sending their kids to Ateneo will suddenly have second thoughts. If Ateneo cannot ensure the safety of its prized cagers, much feted and idolized, what’s the guarantee that their own children, who are obviously all very bright enough to make the grade and gain admission to this prestigious university, will be safe within its exclusive halls? That Ateneo will protect them? That there will be proper safeguards? That there will be proper supervision?

As for student athletes, they’re going to be much harder to entice. All that the rival schools will have to do will be to allude to the drowning, and the temptations and entreaties that Ateneo lays out to future recruits will be for naught.

It will be interesting to see what the impact is on future applications for admission. Will there be a significant drop in wannabe freshmen? I would take this bet.

Ateneo has this air of prestige, with an incredible alumni network that’s just shoveling cash, opportunities, and even more prestige back to its nursing ground. From the outside, it seems like it’s dripping in wealth.

But then we come to grips with the reality that their team building wasn’t in a private boutique hotel or an exclusive beach resort where most posh companies go. They trekked to Aurora, Quezon, with no flotilla of lifeguards or medical professionals in tow. So what does that signify to the outsider? That with all that wealth, they couldn’t choose a safer place, one that’s more accessible, or hire people with the appropriate foresight, diligence, or common sense to plan better?

And the response to the grieving mother! Ateneo’s men should have been on a flight to Mindanao the minute it happened, to deliver the news in person, and to hold her hands on the way to Manila. To stand by her side every excruciating hour that she is here trying to live through a nightmare. If Ateneo couldn’t do this minimum to a star recruit, what more for ordinary studes?

Ateneo is not showing us others what it means to be a person for us. Us others? We have already thrown up our hands in despair.