Ownership dispute grips school in Subic

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—An international school is caught in legal and management disputes after a court in Olongapo City stopped a new set of officials from taking over the institution even if its Korean operator, who is wanted for fraud in South Korea, was arrested here recently.

Judge Richard Paradeza of the Olongapo City Regional Trial Court Branch 72, on Monday barred the new board of directors of the American International School (AIS) of Subic, led by Koreans Bae Myung Hee and Hong Jong Wook, from entering the AIS campus.

Paradeza issued an order to re-implement the writ of preliminary injunction, which he first issued on Jan. 14 this year, against Bae and Hong’s group when the Koreans tried to take over the school from the group of Lee Sangeok last month.

Lee, in January this year, filed a motion for a writ of preliminary injunction against Bae and Hong.

Case vs judge

Bae and Hong, however, turned to the Court of Appeals (CA) also in January to nullify Paradeza’s order and stop him from hearing the case that Lee filed against them.

They said Paradeza has no “territorial jurisdiction” over the case since the AIS is within the town of Morong in nearby Bataan province.

The CA granted the petition of Bae and Hong on June 26.

Paradeza, however, said the CA’s decision was not final as Lee’s camp filed for a motion for reconsideration.

Lee was arrested by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and the Bureau of Immigration (BI) in his house in this free port last month for alleged fraud and falsification of corporate documents in Korea.

Fake documents

Bae and Hong sought Lee’s deportation and sued him and five other Koreans in the BI on Dec. 9, 2013 for allegedly using fake documents to get majority shares in AIS.

Hong, through an interpreter, said he and his wife are the legitimate owners of AIS since they owned a combined 96 percent of the company’s shares while Lee owned only 1 percent.

“I hired Lee to help process the registration papers of AIS with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) since he speaks English well,” Hong said.

Maneuver

But he said Lee was able to take over the management of AIS after he falsified corporate documents submitted to SEC.

Some parents of students in AIS said classes had been disrupted by the management dispute.

A parent, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal, told the Inquirer that the supply of electricity and water to some of the school buildings had been cut off under Lee’s management.

Effect on students

The parent said at least 20 American teachers had left the school, supposedly after failing to receive their salaries for three months.

Other parents, the source said, had also stopped sending their children to AIS since the legal and management disputes erupted.

“Our children are the ones being directly affected by this problem and we hope this could be resolved soon,” the parent said.

Hong said his group wanted to take over the school’s management “to set everything in place.” Allan Macatuno, Inquirer Central Luzon