Tanco group puts off plan to take over PWU

MANILA, Philippines - Putting the best interest of students first,  the group of businessman Eusebio Tanco has put off  plans to take over the Philippine Women’s University which had been locked down by the school’s founding members, the Benitez family.

The Tanco-led STI Holdings said it was holding in abeyance the enforcement of its rights as unpaid and aggrieved creditors to ensure that PWU opens the soonest possible time and avoid dragging students into the full-blown squabble.

“The PWU community was confronted with a university that has been locked down by the Benitez family. No one, not even the students who were expecting to enroll and attend classes, was allowed to enter.  Notices were posted on the facade of the university saying that the university open on Jan. 7, 2015 and that all students should report to their deans before enrollment,” STI president Monico Jacob said.

“We have no desire to escalate a purely creditor-debtor boardroom issue to a level where the higher interests and welfare of the students will be damaged and prejudiced.  As educators and responsible businessmen, the students are always our priority,” Jacob said.

However, Jacob said the deferment of its planned takeover of the PWU should not be construed as a waiver of STI’s rights as unpaid creditors nor is it a waiver of its declaration that PWU is in default of the agreements signed with the Benitez family.

Jacob said STI shall remain as members of the PWU board of trustees while the day-to-day governance of the university remains the responsibility of the students.

The rift between the two parties stemmed from Tanco’s move to forge a  partnership with Ayala Land Inc., which would allow the property giant to develop the PWU’s 10,000-square meter Jose Abad Santos Memorial School (JASMS) campus in Quezon City into a residential and commercial district.

The Benitezes  vehemently opposed  the plan that entails the construction of a mall within the JASMS site since 30 percent of the students are Special Education pupils.

They also thumbed down Tanco’s plan for PWU to take out a P500-million loan from STI to participate in the condo-mall project.

Despite the Benitez family’s objections, STI announced its joint venture deal with ALI last September.

The Benitezes claimed that while PWU was hobbled by financial difficulties that led to the entry of the Tanco camp four years ago, PWU was well run and had a steady enrollment of 5,000 under its current president Jose Francisco Benitez.

Refuting claims of mismanagement, the Benitezes blamed the Tanco-led camp for the  “blighted campuses” of the PWU, pointing out that STI Holdings had taken operational control of the university since 2011 when it acquired PWU’s P230 million debt with Banco De Oro.

“The family explained that it was STI that handled the operations of the PWU since then, through managers appointed by Tanco while the family handled the academics side,” the statement said.

Despite a marketing budget of P26 million, the Tanco group failed to deliver on its promise to increase PWU enrollees to 10,000, the Benitezes said.

“STI bought the PWU debt in 2011 and came in as investors, not as creditors. This was why all BDO principal and interest payments were suspended in accordance with the November 2011 agreement,” the family explained.

The group of Tanco said it was willing to invest to improve PWU’s facilities as part of its commitment to provide better education to the students.

“We will fulfill the dreams of the students for a better school and better education. That is the bottom line of PWU’s legacy. We have the resources and the expertise to succeed where the previous owners failed. The students should get the education they paid for,” STI president Monico Jacob said.

Jacob said PWU would have been foreclosed and the Benitezes would have been ousted from the university’s board had STI not stepped in.

“We bought the debt from the bank and became the creditor. So we helped the Benitez group keep control of PWU. But last month its key members asked for the rescission of its agreement with STI without offering to pay us a single centavo. Since they were actually in default with us just days after we bailed them out, we called in their resignations,” Jacob said.