STI moves to foreclose on JASMS campus

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BUSINESSMAN Eusebio Tanco-led STI Education Systems Holdings Inc. has moved to foreclose on one of the most valuable property assets of beleaguered Philippine Women’s University- the one-hectare campus of Jose Abad Santos Memorial School (JASMS) along EDSA highway in Quezon City.

Amid an ongoing dispute over a soured partnership with the Benitez family in PWU, STI told the Philippine Stock Exchange on Friday that it had filed petitions at the Regional Trial Court of Quezon City seeking the extra-judicial foreclosure of real estate mortgage registered under the name of Unlad Resources Development Corp., PWU’s affiliate company which was supposed to absorb these property assets.

The parcels of land were registered under the name of Unlad and were mortgaged in favor of STI Holdings and Attenborough Holdings Corp. (AHC) as security under an agreement dated June 8, 2012 executed among UNLAD, as debtor, and STI Holdings and AHC, as creditors.

Prior to this foreclosure move against the Quezon City property, STI took 100 percent control of AHC by buying out the shares of businessman-turned-politician Alfredo “Albee” Benitez, Tanco’s sole ally among the Benitez family and who was the one who convinced the latter to invest in PWU in 2012.

From STI’s point of view, the foreclosure proceedings were meant to protect its shareholders amid PWU’s failure to pay what STI claims to be almost P1 billion worth of accumulated loans, interest, and expenses following a 2012 partnership deal that has gone awry. The Benitez family, on the other hand, is contesting the computation of interest on the principal debt and has offered to settle for an amount much less than that demanded by Tanco.

Earlier, STI also filed foreclosure proceedings against two of PWU’s campuses in Manila. After this petition to foreclose the JASMS property in Quezon City, it has also announced plans to foreclose on another PWU property in Davao.

JASMS is the basic education arm of PWU whose campus is located in a prime property along EDSA near Quezon Avenue in Quezon City. The one-hectare property which STI now seeks to foreclose was the subject of the dispute between the Tanco and Benitez groups over the alleged commercialization of the school.

The Benitez family had explained that the “tipping point” in the issue was Tanco’s move to sign up with property giant Ayala Land to develop the JASMS campus in Quezon City into a “JASMS District Mall” complete with a twin tower residential-commercial condominium. The family said it also rejected Tanco’s plan for PWU to take out a P500-million loan from STI to participate in the condo-mall project.

Tanco said it was the family that sought to commercialize this asset long before he had come in to bail out PWU, citing another soured partnership with Jardine Land.