By ELLEN TORDESILLAS, AVIGAIL OLARTE, YVONNE CHUA and LUZ RIMBAN
THE controversial $1.32-million house at 1655 Beach Park Blvd in Foster City, California is no longer listed in the name of presidential daughter-in-law Angela Arroyo Montenegro, wife of First Son and Pampanga representative Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo.
Arroyo lawyers and associates quietly reported the transfer of the property to the name of Beachway LLC on Sept. 18, 2009, nearly three weeks after VERA Files reported Arroyo’s failure to declare the property in his 2007 and 2008 Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Networth (SALN).
But in their attempt to cure the problems in the property’s ownership records, the lawyers and associates overlooked the fact that they were reporting a transaction two years late, and inadvertently also drawing attention to Arroyo’s failure to report the property in his July 2007 SALN.
Documents show that Angela Arroyo Montenegro requested the San Mateo County Assessor to record the “grant” of the five-bedroom, two-story house in Foster City to Beachway LLC (Limited Liability Company) only on Sept. 18, 2009. VERA Files first broke the story on Aug. 31, 2009.
The deed Angela submitted to the assessor’s office (Document No. 2009-125647) states that she granted Beachway the Foster City property “for a valuable consideration” on Oct. 29, 2007. In other words, she said she sold the property to Beachway in October 2007, or nearly two years before she reported the transaction.
Arroyo’s former chief of staff, Antonio Mariano Almeda, confirmed he was in the U.S. last year “to make sure that the transfer was effected” because of the controversy. “It’s above board. (There is) nothing to hide, nothing illegal,” he said in an interview.
Lawyer Ruy Rondain, whom Arroyo hired after the controversy over the property broke out, was also in San Francisco, California, last year to help put the couple’s records in order, U.S.-based Filipino lawyers said.
Rondain, in a phone interview last week, said: “I met with someone about the properties. I examined the records with the broker. That’s all. I don’t have the expertise. That’s California law.”
Although the latest filing means that Arroyo need not declare ownership of the property in his December 2007 and December 2008 SALNs, he was still required to report this in the July 2007 SALN he filed upon his reelection as representative of Pampanga’s second district because the property was still in his wife’s name. His July 2007 SALN shows he did not.
The transfer was Arroyo’s explanation for not declaring the beachfront property in his December 2007 and 2008 SALNs as reported by VERA Files.
The law mandates all public officials to include in the annual declarations all property and business interests that they, their spouses and children under 18 own.
Arroyo had previously said, and then denied, that his wealth, including the real property he has acquired and the businesses he has formed since his election to public office, came from campaign contributions and wedding gifts.
He later said he had married an “independently wealthy” woman to justify the jump in his net worth after VERA Files found that his statement of contributions and expenses for the 2004 and 2007 campaigns show him receiving no donations of any kind.
Arroyo and his lawyer Rondain subsequently produced a supplemental SALN in 2003 to show he reported the increase in his net worth after his marriage to his cousin Angela in 2002. He was vice governor then. But VERA Files found that neither the Office of the Ombudsman nor the Pampanga provincial capitol has a record of the supplemental declaration.
Arroyo is not running for re-election in May to give way to his mother, who has made the unprecedented move of an outgoing president running for a congressional seat. He is, however, a nominee of partylist Ang Galing Pinoy, according to Bacolor, Pampanga Mayor Buddy Dungca.
The 2007 grant deed signed by Montenegro shows that the California firm that Mikey says he co-owns is Beachway LLC, not “Beach Way Park” as he had consistently reported in his December 2007 and December 2008 SALNs.
Also attached to Montenegro’s recording request to the San Mateo County was an “Illegible Notary Seal Declaration” providing details of the notary seal that appears on the deed.
The declaration, executed in Redwood City, California, on Sept. 28, 2009, and with handwritten entries, identifies the notary (E.S. Villanueva), his commission number (1463496), the date the commission expires (Jan. 17, 2008), and the county and state (San Francisco, California).
Compared to similar transactions they had done in the past, it took the Arroyo couple an uncharacteristically long time to report to the assessor’s office the transfer of the Foster City property to Beachway LLC.
When they bought their three-bedroom unit at Manors Condominium at 805 Mendocino Way in Redwood City on Sept. 25, 2005, the purchase was reported to the San Mateo County Assessor four days later on Sept. 29, 2005. It was also the same day they reported the interspousal transfer of the property, from Mikey to Angela.
A request for the assessor to record the acquisition of the Foster City house and lot, made on Aug. 10, 2006, was filed on Aug. 23, 2006, the same day the interspousal transfer was reported to the county office.
Even mortgage transactions on the two pieces of property were reported to San Mateo County Assessor within one to two weeks these were made.
“It (The Foster City property) was sold to Beachway a long time ago. I don’t know why it was not transferred right away by the American lawyers. It’s their job,” Rondain said.
Mikey also got the name of his own company wrong. His SALN for December 2007 and December 2008 lists him as owning shares in “Beach Way Park,” and not Beachway LLC. His SALNs do not state when Beachway was formed. It only had the firm’s address—“Beach Park Blvd., California.”
Records show that Paracorp Inc. registered Beachway LLC with the California Secretary of State in Sacramento on Sept. 27, 2007. Paracorp Inc. resigned as Beachway’s agent the following year.
On Oct. 6, 2009, three weeks after Montenegro requested the San Mateo County to record the transfer of the Foster City property, Beachway filed a statement of information with the California Secretary of State listing Almeda as one of its managers; Albert Mac Rogers Jr. as its agent; and real estate investment as its type of business.
Three days later, it filed a certificate of amendment to report that the company would be managed by all its members instead of one manager.
Both documents do not provide data on Beachway’s other members or managers. Almeda declined to name them, saying only, “I’m representing the investors” and that Mikey has minority shares.
Arroyo said in a television program last year he owns “about 20 to 30 percent, 40 something, like that.”
Almeda is deputy executive director of the Joint Congressional Power Commission, a post he was appointed to by Mikey, who chairs the House committee on energy. Almeda is running for congressman in Caloocan City’s second district as a candidate of the Nacionalista Party.
A registered horseowner with the Philippine Racing Commission and the No. 4 nominee of the party-list Ahonbayan in the 2007 elections, he has coalesced with Mayor Enrico “Recom” Echiverri who is seeking reelection under the Liberal Party ticket.
Almeda said, however, the NP-LP alliance applies only to the local contest and that he is “carrying the NP ticket” for the national elections.
Almeda, who was once president of the Aquila Legis Fraternity of the Ateneo Law School, was among those convicted for the fatal hazing in 1991 of neophyte Leonardo “Lenny” Villa. In 2002, the Court of Appeals downgraded the charges against Almeda and three other fraternity members from homicide to slight physical injuries, which carried a penalty of 20 days’ imprisonment.
Although he is a manager of Arroyo’s Beachway LLC, Almeda is not connected with any of the congressman’s companies in the Philippines, a check with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed.
Almeda has business interests in at least five companies, among them Triple A Horse Supply Inc., which was formed in 2003 and is engaged in trading of equine feeds. Another Triple A incorporator is Almeda’s brother, Lamberto Jr., who is Arroyo’s co-incorporator in at least three companies—Klub Don Juan de Manila Inc., Los Manos Verdes and U18 Properties. One of Arroyo’s groomsmen, Raphael Mondragon, is also an incorporator of Triple A as well as of Arroyo’s U18 Properties and Franchino Farms.
Antonio Mariano, Lamberto and another brother, Donato, are all shareholders of Westborough Land Realty Corp. The brothers are also directors and stockholders of Junna Industrial Corp., a company that trades, imports, and exports goods and wares incorporated in 1985.
Both Antonio Mariano and Lamberto are connected with two other companies—Almeda Transport Systems Inc. and Junna Automation Corp. Engaged in towing, leasing and acquiring motor vehicles, the family-owned Almeda Transport was set up in 2003. Junna Automation, which “sells controls and instrumentation products and services,” was formed in 2002.
Ferrotech Steel Corp., a manufacturer of liquefied petroleum gas tanks, was set up in 1995 with Lamberto listed among the stockholders. In the company’s 2008 amended articles of incorporation, however, Antonio Mariano was the only Almeda listed as stockholder. The company’s 2009 report no longer had any of the Almedas as stockholders or company officers. By then the company reported it had five affiliate corporations.
Lamberto has four other companies. His brother Donato is an incorporator of the newly formed Bloombury Investments Holdings Inc., which was among the companies in the gaming business chosen by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. to finance the multibillion-peso entertainment complex “Tourism City.”
Bloombury came under fire for having no financial capability and track record to prove it can finance the project, according to news reports. Its SEC records showed Bloombury has a paid-up capital of P15 million out of an authorized capital stock of P60 million. Businessman Jose “Pepito” Ch. Alvarez owns most of the company’s shares (P14.9 million) while Donato and other shareholders have one share each at P1.
