By AVIGAIL OLARTE
PAMPANGA Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo said that as far as he and his lawyers are concerned, it is perfectly legal for a public official not to declare houses and other assets in their Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Networth (SALN) if these assets are under a company’s name, as long as the company is listed as part of the official’s business interests.
Mikey gave this explanation Tuesday in an interview conducted by GMA Channel 7’s morning show Unang Hirit where he was questioned by hosts Winnie Monsod and Arnold Clavio over reports he failed to declare in his 2007 and 2008 SALNs a P63 million property in San Francisco Bay in California.
The president’s eldest child insisted that the house located at 1655 Beach Park Blvd in Foster City is registered under Beach Way Park LLC, in which he is a shareholder. A check conducted by VERA Files at the San Mateo County Assessor’s Office on Monday, Aug. 31, showed the property still registered in the name of his wife, Angela Arroyo Montenegro.
His two latest asset declarations show that he has shares in Beach Way Park on “Beach Park Blvd California,” the same street where the Foster City property is located.
Mikey told hosts Monsod and Clavio: “Insofar as I’m concerned and my lawyers are concerned and I believe many public officials do this also, we can put properties under a company’s name, as long as we declared the company. So this is how we declared it.”
“It’s not hiding (it), it’s legal,” he said. “I’m not hiding anything.”
He also said the Foster City house is co-owned by the other shareholders and that he himself uses it when he goes on vacation in the US. He also said the property is not for sale. VERA Files partly obtained information about Mikey’s property from two Websites–www.zillow.com and www.ewalk.com–that advertise houses for sale.
Mikey said his immediate family owns about 30 to 40 percent of the shares in Beach Way Park, but he refused to divulge the names of other shareholders, his friends as he called them, since they are private citizens.
Mikey said the public could check the names at the Securities and Exchange Commission.
But Monsod, herself a former government official, told Mikey that the burden was on him to disclose the names of people he was doing business with.
“You are a public official and you cannot say you are protecting your private friends when you are responsible to declare,” Monsod said.
An online search with the U.S. and California Securities and Exchange Commissions and the State of California’s official Website, including its database of LLCs or limited liability companies, yielded no record of “Beach Way Park LLC.” Information on the State of California’s Website is updated weekly and “is current as of Aug. 28, 2009.”
VERA Files Update: A source pointed VERA Files to the California Business and Professions Code (Sections 17900 et seq.) that requires fictitious business filing with the county where the business is located. A check subsequently done by VERA Files with the business filings at the San Mateo County Clerk Recorder’s Office, where the Foster City property is located, yielded no “Beach Way Park.”
Mikey reiterated that he has no residence in the U.S. that is solely his. “Stop saying it is my house. It’s a house owned by the Beach Way Company.”
What he used to own were two houses, he said. One was acquired in 2005 for P49.5 million and another in 2006 worth P63 million. But he gave no details about the properties, except to say that the properties had already been sold. The 2005 property was sold after five to six months, he added. The 2006 house, according to him, is not the Foster City property.
When asked about the sudden increase in his net worth when he was still Pampanga vice governor in 2002 (P5 million) and then when he was elected to Congress in 2005 (P76 million), Mikey said his lawyers “made a mistake” in filing the SALN.
“Under the law, assuming you make mistakes in your SALN you can amend it the next year, as long as you pay the proper taxes,” he offered. “Hindi pa tayo sanay mag-declare noon di ba (We weren’t used to filing SALNs yet, were we)?” But Mikey could not give specfics about which entries or in what years his lawyers erred in the filing of his SALN.
He also said he would wait for his lawyer, a certain Attorney de Guzman, to provide more detailed explanations.
But Mikey did say that part of the increase in his net worth could be attributed to the gifts he and his wife received when they got married in 2002. It was also the campaign season, he said, and that he had good investments at the time. “But these are just examples. My lawyer will answer all that.”
Mikey added that his wealth could not be described as “ill-gotten.” “Di naman gaano kalakihan iyan (The amounts are not that big),” he added. “As far as I’m concerned, I’m transparent,” reiterating that his SALN is self-explanatory.
Mikey said should there still be doubts about his SALN, anyone can sue him. “Kung gusto ninyo, i-demanda ninyo ako para magkalinawagan tayo (So why don’t any of you sue me in court? To get it over and done with)?” he said.
But Monsod said: “It’s not a question of suing you in court. It’s a matter of asking you to explain what seems to be unexplainable. It is supposed to be your burden, not our burden.”
Monsod said under the law, the burden of proof lies with the government official or employee should there be doubts on his or her wealth. “A government employee must prove that he is innocent. That is precisely the whole objective of having a SALN, so you can prove to everyone that everything is transparent.”
Monsod added that issues on unexplained wealth of public officials are raised because the Office of the Ombudsman is not doing its job. “It’s the Ombudsman who is supposed to be taking this initiative. She’s the one who should be doing this but it’s not happening.”
