Rooty Hill, NSW. December 8, 2008. Fr. Renato Paras today declared that the MPC Managers have made a partial payment of $37,000 to Ms. Tess Lopez leaving a balance of $263,000 from the original $300,000 amount owed. He added that the $37,000 came from the buyer of the MPC Rooty Hill property who promised to settle the full amount by January 2009. The original promised settlement date was September 28, 2008.
The Filipino Multi-Purpose Centre (MPC) in Rooty Hill was bought for $750,000, a much lower amount than the original asking price of $1 million. Fr. Paras said that the new MPC property in Schofields has been fully paid at a cost of $1,150,000.
From an earlier inquiry, it was learned that the bulk of the payment for the Schofields property came from a loan obtained from Stacks Investment at an interest of rate of 11½% per annum.
Contrary to popular belief, Fr. Paras was not a party to the loan granted by Ms. Tess Lopez. In his capacity as a Parish Priest, he is not allowed by the Diocese of Parramatta to act as guarantor. But it was through his intercession that Ms. Lopez granted the loan.
Meanwhile, we have no information as to how much money was derived by MPC from the “Kapamilya sa Australia 2008” project that was held on 29 November 2008. We can only hope that MPC will practice more transparency and make a public declaration of the amount of money it made. After all, more than $1 million was collected from the Filipino community.
Tickets at the gate of “Kapamilya” were sold for $20 per person.