Tanco to Benitez: Don’t blame us

MANILA, Philippines - The camp of businessman Eusebio Tanco, chairman of STI Holdings, said it has no plans of giving in to the Benitez family’s pleas to stop the planned foreclosure of Philippine Women’s University (PWU) campuses in Manila, Quezon City and Davao.

In a phone interview, Tanco told The STAR yesterday that his group would not pull back its petitions already filed at the regional trial courts despite the appeals made by the Benitez Group.

“They’re blaming us for their misfortunes but when they took the loan, they’re aware of what they signed and the interest,” Tanco said.

 “Don’t blame it on us. We are basically just executing what’s in the agreement. We in STI honor all our contractual obligations,” he added.

The Benitez family, majority owner of PWU, in a statement released on Wednesday cried foul over the move of Tanco’s STI Holdings to foreclose PWU campuses, saying that it will not only hurt the 96-year old institution but the students as well.

As such, the Benitez Group made an appeal to Tanco to reconsider its petitions to foreclose the PWU properties.

Tanco, however, expressed no signs of reconsidering his camp’s court petitions.

 “They misappropriated the funds. We have a contract that we will follow. You don’t blame your mismanagement or your drop in enrollment on us,” he said.

The Benitez Group claimed that STI Holdings is putting “business ahead of education”,  citing a slight decrease in enrollment in PWU since the problems with STI began.

STI’s move to foreclose the PWU properties stemmed due to the latter’s alleged failure to pay almost P1 billion in accumulated loans, interest, and expenses.

STI had acquired PWU’s loan with BDO worth P223 million in 2011, and loaned another P198 million to Unlad, the corporate arm of the Benitez family.

The Benitez family has been proposing a P550-million settlement to end the dispute, an amount which it called as “fair and just.”

 “For them, they feel that’s a reasonable amount, but it’s not. If they misappropriated their funds, that’s their fault, not us,” Tanco said.