PWU eyes joint venture with Ayala

Facade of Philippine Women’s University on Taft Avenue, Manila.  NIÑO JESUS ORBETA/INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–The Benitez family has invited Ayala Land Inc. to be its potential partner for the redevelopment of the Quezon City campus of Philippine Women University’s basic education arm Jose Abad Santos  Memorial School (JASMS).

Facing foreclosure proceedings initiated by disgruntled creditor and investor STI Holdings following an aborted partnership deal in PWU, the university proposed to ALI—the same developer that STI Holdings would have teamed up with for the JASMS campus property development—to buy out the portion of the original campus already owned by businessman Eusebio Tanco and develop a “community-designed” education commons with PWU.

“With the new central business district being built by Ayala Land Inc. and the large malls already operating opposite the campus, I suggest that the best use of the property would be one based on serious stakeholder consultations,” Gillian Joyce Virata, officer in charge for administration at JASMS Quezon City, said in a letter sent to ALI chair Fernando Zobel de Ayala.

The letter, which was dated Jan. 28, 2015, but received by ALI officials only last March 4, defined the proposed “education commons” as one that will have JASMS at its core, “surrounded by complementary venues for community education activities in such areas as discourse, training, culture and the arts, sports, innovation and entrepreneurship.”

To flesh out such proposal, the letter said the current landowners—the Benitezes and the Tancos who own half of the 2.2-hectare original JASMS campus—would have to agree to sell their properties to another party such as ALI or to each other.

“I also know that ALI has already signed an agreement to jointly develop the properties. In my ideal scenario, ALI would buy the Tanco property and develop the education commons with PWU,” Virata said.

“It is my hope that interest from a third-party investor in a development such as the education commons with PWU would lead to an amicable settlement. When this happens, we can continue the work to enrich the lives of JASMS families and other stakeholders including the wider community,” she added.

The Ayala group itself also recently invested in the education sector, beginning with a basic education program and a junior college program.