Benitez family: STI takeover of PWU illegal

Facade of Philippine Women’s University at Taft Avenue, Manila. NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

MANILA, Philippines–The Benitez family is not giving up family heirloom Philippine Women’s University to Tanco-led STI Holdings without a fight.

In a strongly worded statement issued on Tuesday, the Benitez family said STI’s “takeover” was illegal and refuted STI’s claim that family members had resigned as board of trustees and members.

Issuing a statement about this break-up of the cooperation deal with the group of businessman Eusebio Tanco for the first time, the Benitez family claimed that it wanted to terminate the partnership due to Tanco’s plan to “commercialize” the JASMS (Jose Abad Santos Memorial School) Quezon City campus, PWU’s basic education arm.

The Benitezes accused STI of resorting to “dirty tactics” by issuing on Monday a press release claiming that family members had resigned from PWU, paving the way for the takeover. “The claims are baseless and the so-called take-over is illegal,” the family said.

“Earlier this year, the Tanco group unilaterally announced the commercialization of the JASMS QC campus. This surprised and shocked the JASMS community, who resisted such commercialization. The current act of take-over of PWU was triggered by the refusal of the JASMS community to agree to his idea of commercializing the JASMS campus,” the Benitez family said.

The issuance of notice of default on Dec. 9, the Benitez family said, was in retaliation to this refusal to commercialize the campus.

A source from the PWU group said STI’s plan was to develop the prime property into a retail complex and move JASMS to a mid-rise building.

STI’s claim was that PWU was indebted to it to the tune of P928 million because the former assumed a P230-million loan from Banco de Oro Unibank three years ago.

“Said notice of default inappropriately and unilaterally demanded payment of the entire amount within a mere seven days. The said notice of default is baseless and procedurally infirm,” the family said.

As such, the Benitez family said it’s challenging this default notice and “taking legal action to fight this brazen take-over attempt of a revered educational institution.”

“The Tanco group knows that the Benitez family is contesting this notice of default. Yet without even the cursory attempt to engage in dialogue and refusing to entertain such offers of dialogue to discuss the default, the Tanco group is now attempting to take over PWU,” it said.

Overall, the Benitez family thus does recognize the STI’s take-over of PWU and clarified that none of its members had resigned. It was also contesting the notice of default, both as to amount and as to the factual basis of default.

“Over the course of three years, the Benitez family realized that Mr. Tanco’s vision to commercialize PWU and JASMS does not conform to the vision of the founders and the Benitez family’s enduring commitment to education,” the family said.

“The entire PWU and JASMS community join the Benitez family in their vow to fight tooth and nail to prevent a predator from taking over their beloved PWU and JASMS,” the family said.

For its part, the STI group’s claim of resignation was based on undated resignations signed in 2011 as part of their cooperation deal. From its point of view, STI’s holding of these resignation letters could be invoked at any time if the other party did not meet its commitment.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Tuesday, STI said it was enforcing its rights as creditor and subrogee of Banco de Oro to the P223 million debt of PWU and as a consequence of the alleged default of PWU and Unlad Resources Development Corp. in the payment of their obligations to STI Holdings.

Enforced the security arrangements under the BDO loan facility, STI announced on Monday and reaffirmed to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Tuesday that it had acquired: 11 out of 14 membership in PWU (a non-stock corporation where ownership is thus determined by membership instead of stock holdings) alongside eight out of the 10 seats in the board of trustees.

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