MANILA, Philippines — Businessman Jose Roberto “Robbie” Antonio has resigned from his father Jose E.B. Antonio’s business empire, Century Properties Group (CPG) as co-managing director and member of its board of directors.
The resignation, accepted by the board, comes amid controversies the younger Antonio is facing. These involve unpaid contracts with stakeholders of his property technology startup Revolution Precrafted Properties Inc.
Antonio is CEO of Revolution, which makes designer prefabricated homes.
In his letter to the board on Feb. 20, Antonio said his departure from CPG would allow him to focus on resolving the issues in his privately owned company – Revolution, its subsidiaries and allied businesses, which were affected by the pandemic.
“I know I am making the correct decision to step down from my position in CPG as I will leave it under the very capable leadership of the board and the professional expertise of its senior management team. This will also allow me to focus on addressing the pressing issues in Revolution and its allied businesses,” he said.
The resignation takes effect immediately, CPG said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday.
Antonio is the target of an investigation by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) for allegedly failing to fulfill contracts with different businessmen.
Antonio attributed the problems of Revolution to the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Revolution Precrafted, like many companies, was not exempt from market challenges brought about by the coronavirus pandemic that significantly affected its sales, collections and operations,” he said in a statement.
The company, he assured stakeholders, will honor all legitimate contractual obligations with its partners and suppliers “and only ask for some time consideration to resolve its issues.”
He also said Revolution would also work in earnest to collect what is due the company.
Revolution allied companies are Resurgent Corp., Renegade and Radiant.
In a statement yesterday, Revolution said the group continues to comply with its agreements. The company is ready to settle legitimate obligations which have fallen due and has no intention to renege on these legitimate contractual claims.
According to a report on ABS-CBN, nine contractors and suppliers have filed a complaint before the NBI on Thursday, claiming that they were lured into different contracts by Antonio’s company.
In their complaints, they said they would win contracts in the company’s real estate development projects if they paid the company 10 percent of the contract’s value.
The contracts, however, were not followed since the company failed to secure permits with government agencies to continue with the projects, the complainants said.
Complainants include suppliers of furniture, fixtures and construction supplies.
They said they suffered significant losses since Antonio’s company did not honor their contract in ordering supplies.
Antonio previously envisioned Revolution to be the first Filipino “unicorn” or startup firm with a valuation of $1 billion.