In the January issue of Philippine Tribune, we published an announcement made by Fr. Renato Paras that Tess Lopez was paid $37,000 by the MPC managers as partial payment for the $300,000 they borrowed from her.
I was later informed by the good priest that the actual amount paid was $35,000 and not $37,000 as he earlier stated. The balance still stands at $265,000.
Philippine Tribune was informed by another source that the buyer of the MPC Rooty Hill property is Bathla Construction and that the $35,000 paid was merely a down payment. According to our source who did not want to be identified, Bathla Construction categorically stated that no settlement date for the final payment has yet been determined and agreed upon.
To this day, managers of the Multi-Purpose Centre (MPC) do not appear to welcome any inquiry from media. Their website has not been updated for a long time and absolutely no information is available from any of the Trustees. They are truly very much lacking in transparency and MPC CEO Luz Tiqui has blamed negative publicity from the media.
Meanwhile, not too many among the Filipino community are very enthusiastic in supporting this uncompleted project that is 20 years old.