I keep coming back to one small, unbearable fact. Before Rene Clert Baterbonia was a name on a national headline, before he was a “Blue Eagles recruit” and then, God help us, a body pulled from the surf in Dipaculao, he was a boy from Talacogon, Agusan del Sur, who wore the same blue we wear here in Davao. He was an Ateneo de Davao product. He led our region to a Palarong Pambansa gold and took home the MVP. He was, in the truest and most literal sense, one of ours. So no, I can’t write about this the way a columnist writes about a distant tragedy in Manila. This one landed at home. And that’s exactly why I need to write it honestly,