The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) has recommended the filing of homicide and reckless imprudence resulting in homicide charges against former Ateneo Blue Eagles basketball team head coach Tab Baldwin and others.
“The DOJ confirms receipt today, 1 July 2026, of a supplemental referral from the CIDG in relation to the same matter," the Department of Justice said in a statement.
"The supplemental referral recommends the filing of charges for Homicide and/or Reckless Imprudence Resulting in Homicide, as the evidence and applicable law may warrant,” it added.
GMA News Online has sought comment from the Ateneo de Manila University and will publish it as soon as it is available.
The DOJ said the supplemental referral will be treated as forming part of the CIDG’s original referral dated June 26, which remains under evaluation.
The CIDG earlier recommended the filing of complaints for alleged violations of Republic Act No. 11053, or the Anti-Hazing Act, against Baldwin and 11 others, including student managers and utility staff.
On Monday, the American-New Zealander admitted to not holding an alien employment permit (AEP) despite working as a basketball coach in the Philippines since 2013.
"I do not have nor do I believe I ever had a card like that. However, if I could clarify, in 2015, I did receive by e-mail an AEP application form partially filled out," Baldwin told the DOLE special panel.
Baldwin made the remarks during a clarificatory hearing of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) on the validity of his employment status following the deaths of student-athletes Rene Clert Baterbonia and Divine Adili.
Former Ateneo players speak out
Former players of the Ateneo de Manila University men's basketball team have contradicted Baldwin's claim that no drowning scare had occurred during a previous training camp.
Speaking at a press briefing on June 26, Interior and Local Government Secretary Jonvic Remulla said that similar incidents nearly turned fatal years before the deaths of student-athletes Baterbonia and Adili in Dipaculao, Aurora on June 8.
Remulla said investigators learned this from the testimonies of former Ateneo players who attended a team-building activity in Dipaculao in 2016.
"I'm sorry."
It took four days after the tragedy for Baldwin to speak out in public.
In a video posted by the university on June 12, Baldwin apologized to the families of the student-athletes.
"I'm sorry. To the depth of my being, I'm sorry," Baldwin said.
“On that fateful day when we sent the players out for a routine training run in what we thought was shallow water, up to the moment when we realized that whatever had happened, they were in dangerous water. We did everything that we could,” Baldwin said.
“As coaches, as people responsible for that situation, the players themselves did everything they could to ensure that everybody arrived back on shore safely. And then we realized that we hadn't accomplished that.”
“And in that moment, I experienced the descent into the darkest place imaginable. And yet I knew at the same time that good people, people that had done an amazing job raising these two young men, were going to be in an even darker, more horrible place,” Baldwin added.
“At that moment, I felt I had failed. I failed as a leader. I felt I had failed as a coach.”
Baldwin added he felt like he failed not just only Adili and Baterbonia, but also his team.
“When later I faced the team to try to be a leader in that moment, I felt that I failed them too,” he said.
—Vince Angelo Ferreras/NB/RF, GMA News