Dispute over ‘The School of Rock’ reaches court Respondents deny allegations of Anna Fegi’s husband

CEBU, Philippines - The American husband of Cebuana singer Anna Fegi filed a complaint for grave coercion against their business partners whom they accused of illegally terminating their partnership.

Adam Brown filed the complaint with the Cebu City Prosecutors' Office yesterday.

Named respondents were couple Sofia Salonga-Quisido and Erwin Quisido, founders of music school The School of Rock located along General Maxilom Avenue, Cebu City.

It was six months ago when Brown and Fegi announced in a press briefing their business partnership with the Quisido couple.

As per their agreement, Salonga-Quisido would take care of the school’s operations, administration and marketing; Quisido would oversee technical requirements; Fegi would conduct vocal workshops for teachers and advanced students; while Brown was responsible for developing the curriculum.

What was then a promising venture of “providing a venue for aspiring musical artists to hone their talents” under the tutelage of, in Fegi’s own words then, a “dream team”, has since turned into a sour relationship between the two couples.

In his affidavit complaint, Brown said their problem with the Quisidos began last April. It was the summer season, and they expected a peak in enrollment.

“After all the tiresome work and in the midst of the increase of enrollment for the school, we noticed that the Quisidos were not transparent on the financial aspect of the business,” Brown stated.

The Quisidos never furnished them with a thorough financial report on the revenues of the music school, he added.

“Whenever I request for them, Sofia would simply brush them aside. Though Anna was a co-signatory of the checks, she was asked by Sofia to pre-sign blank checks whenever she goes out of town to do her work without any word on the purpose of the same.”

Fegi requested for a meeting with the Quisidos to iron out issues. During the June 6 meeting, Salonga-Quisido stated that the partnership will not continue.

On June 14, Quisido sent a letter stating their intention to withdraw from their legal contract with the Browns.

The last straw, according to Brown, was when on July 1, he was physically blocked from entering the school premises by the Quisidos, even when he never signed a paper ending our partnership.

The Quisidos, through a statement furnished to The FREEMAN, denied any wrongdoing.

“It is not true that the Browns were just dropped or taken out of the business abruptly. After only five months, we had serious differences in terms of business and financial decisions, divergent management styles, and mistrust. Several months after they signed the MOA, the Browns began questioning some of its provisions,” the Quisidos said.

They added: “With all these serious issues affecting our relationship, we believe that it would not be to the best interest of the school and the students to continue doing business together, when there is no more trust and confidence between the parties. Thus, effective June 15, 2013, and only after a series of communications, we formally gave notice to the Browns of our withdrawal from the MOA and to return to them their investment.”

The Quisidos also refuted the Brown’s claim of a lack of financial transparency. They said all their school receipts, expenses and other accounting records were readily available inside the school premises and can be checked by anyone at any time.

“When the Browns requested for a financial audit last July 1, 2013 we accommodated their CPA and even assisted her inside the school premises. Their CPA’s report that there is a big discrepancy in terms of our cash position is not true at all, as her financial report is still partial and unofficial and had yet to be reconciled with the report of our in-house auditor.  We also learned, per our CPA’s advice, that there were major expenses which were not included in the report, thus, the difference in the two financial statements.”

Amid the case filed against them, the Quisidos said the want to assure their students, the student’s parents and other clients that they are in full control of The School of Rock’s operations.

The issues, they said, will not affect the school’s daily operations. (FREEMAN)