STI moves to foreclose Benitez Davao property

MANILA, Philippines - STI Education Systems Holdings Inc. has initiated foreclosure proceedings anew on another asset owned by the Benitez family as their dispute remains unresolved.

This time, STI is running after the family’s property in Davao, which is registered under the name of Unlad Resources Development Corp. and mortgaged in favor of the Tanco-led company and Attenborough Holdings Corp.

The property was pledged as collateral under a 2012 loan agreement.

STI said this was the last petition initiated against the Benitez family in its bid to compel the Benitez family to pay their obligations amounting to P702.45 million.

The Tanco group resorted to foreclosure proceedings due to PWU’s failure to pay its loans which have now ran up to nearly P1 billion including interest and expenses.

STI president Monico Jacob said the filing would  protect the interest of STI and its shareholders.

The Benitez family, on the other hand, said the petition for extrajudicial foreclosure had no basis.

They sought the intervention of the courts in the hope of resolving their dispute with the Tancos.

The camp of Tanco declared the Benitezes in default on their obligations under a cooperation deal inked in 2011 and threatened to take over the university should they fail to pay the accumulated amount of P928 million.

In an interview yesterday, PWU Media Center director  Lyka Benitez-Brown said they are mulling legal action against the camp of businessman Eusebio Tanco who declared the Benitezes in default on their obligations under a cooperation deal inked in 2011 and threatened to take over the university should they fail to pay the accumulated amount of P928 million.

STI served notices of default on PWU and its sister company, Unlad Resources, on Dec. 9 and gave them seven days to pay the accumulated amount of P928million, or relinquish control of the university.

Under the original agreement, STI should have been paid through the conversion of all its loans into 40-percent equity in Unlad, which, in turn, was to absorb all the real estate assets of PWU in a share-for-property swap.

The Benitez group was likewise supposed to raise the capitalization of  Unlad to P1.5 billion to  be allowed to issue the shares as payment to STI.

STI invoked the Benitez group’s failure to pay STI for loans through a debt-to-equity conversion and appointed representatives to the PWU board.