STI seeks to foreclose on Benitezes’ Davao property

BUSINESSMAN Eusebio Tanco-led STI Education Systems Holdings Inc. is running after another property asset of the Benitez family: a four-hectare lot in Davao, as part of the foreclosure proceedings triggered by a debt dispute involving Philippine Women’s University.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Friday, STI said it had filed a petition for the extra-judicial foreclosure of real estate mortgage with the Regional Trial Court of Davao City.

The petition covers a parcel of land behind the Philippine Women’s College (PWC), a unit that was set up by the Benitez family-controlled PWU in 1953 to provide tertiary education in Mindanao.

The disclosure said this new petition covered a parcel of land registered under the name of Unlad Resources Development Corp. located at Davao City that was mortgaged in favor of STI Holdings and Attenborough Holdings Corp. (AHC) as security under a 2012 loan agreement. UNLAD was the debtor while STI Holdings and AHC were the creditors in this agreement.

Before initiating the foreclosure proceedings, STI gained 100 percent control of AHC by buying out the shares held by businessman-turned-politician Alfedo “Albee” Benitez, consolidating control of PWU debt papers.

This Davao petition is the last petition initiated by STI Holdings – on its own or together with AHC – for the satisfaction of Unlad’s obligations to STI and AHC amounting to P294.07 million and PWU’s obligations to STI amounting to P702.45 million, the disclosure said.

Earlier, STI also moved to foreclose on the one-hectare campus of Jose Abad Santos Memorial School (JASMS), PWU’s basic education arm, along EDSA highway in Quezon City. It also sought control of two PWU campuses in Manila, one on Taft Avenue and another on Indiana Street.