MANILA, Philippines - The Benitez family has succeeded anew in preventing STI Education Holdings Inc. of businessman Eusebio Tanco from seizing another Philippine Women’s University (PWU) asset.
In a statement yesterday, the Benitez Group said the Quezon City Regional Trial Court did not proceed with the auction of the Jose Abad Santos Memorial School (JASMS) campus in Quezon City, stopping the attempt by STI to foreclose the property.
JASMS serves as the basic education institution of the PWU, majority owned by the Benitez clan.
The JASMS campus along EDSA was regarded as the center of the conflict between the Benitez family and Tanco’s STI after the latter announced a condominium and mall development project on the campus last year.
“The announcement ignited opposition from JASMS stakeholders. The Benitez family sided with the JASMS community which then prompted STI to initiate extrajudicial foreclosure of the properties mortgaged to secure PWU’s debts to STI,” PWU media director Lydia Benitez Brown said.
The Manila RTC earlier issued a commencement order to PWU after the 96-year-old academic institution’s chairperson Helena Z. Benitez filed a petition for the rehabilitation of the school.
The Benitez Group said the order invalidated the auction of PWU’s properties which STI had won after it filed for foreclosure of the PWU campuses in Taft Avenue and Indiana Street in Manila.