MANILA, Philippines - The Benitezes said they are willing to pay the original loan which they took from STI owner Eusebio Tanco, but not the amount that the latter is asking for.
In a press briefing yesterday, Benitez family member and Unlad Resources director Conrado L. Benitez II said the family owes P448 million to the Tanco group, which claims the obligation has ballooned to P928 million.
“We’re ready to pay him but just give us enough time and reasonable terms. We are prepared to raise money, but we just need a reasonable timeframe. Certainly not seven days,” he said.
Declaring the Benitezes in default on their obligations under a cooperation deal signed in 2011, the Tanco group has threatened to take over the Philippine Women’s University should the former fail to pay the accumulated amount of P928 million.
Benitez family members questioned the amount which includes “excessive” lawyers’ fees amounting to P125 million and interest which they claim Tanco has already waived.
“We are willing to pay, even some additional, but not double the amount,” said Jose Francisco Benitez, PWU president.
He said the Benitezes were earlier hoping for an “amicable divorce” to settle the squabble between the two parties.
The Benitez family filed last Tuesday with the Manila Regional Trial Court a case against Tanco and his camp.
The family last Monday prevented STI’s takeover of PWU by locking down the campus.
“The objective of the lockdown was to give time for the negotiations. We have not yet come into agreement but school must go on,” Francisco Benitez said.
Key stakeholders of PWU and Jose Abad Santos Memorial School (JASMS) yesterday issued a statement supporting the Benitez family against the Tanco group’s takeover attempt.
“If this dastardly act is allowed to prevail it will prevent thousands of children and students today and in the future to enjoy and benefit from quality education from PWU and JASMS,” the statement said.
“The STI style of education was not compatible with the PWU and JASMS educational principles and mission and that the not-for-profit character and nature of the university and JASMS would be in conflict with STI,” it added.
STI has served notices of default on PWU and its sister company Unlad on Dec. 9 and gave them seven days to pay the amount of P928 million, or relinquish control of the university.
STI claimed that it bailed out PWU from foreclosure in 2011 and lent more funds to fix the school premises which were falling apart, and put in place support systems in accounting and finance, among other things, that were virtually non-existent.
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.
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.