By Ado Paglinawan
S EE ACTUAL PROPERTY DETAIL REPORT AND RELATED ARTICLES AT http://verafiles.org/index.php/focus/317-california-property-still-in-angelas-name-records-show
© Copyright VERA Files. All rights reserved. Permission to reprint obtained by Mr. Paglinawan.
THE house at 1655 Beach Park Blvd. in Foster City, California remains registered in the name of Angela Arroyo Montenegro, wife of presidential son and Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo, data from the San Mateo County assessor’s office show.
As of Monday, Aug. 31, the latest entry in the assessor’s office was dated April 2008 and shows Angela as the “grantee” of the property, which Mikey on Monday said he had already transferred to a company called Beach Way Park LLC as a way of explaining why the property did not appear in his 2007 and 2008 Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Network (SALN). LLC is short for Limited Liability Company.
“(The house) is registered under Beach Way Park LLC in which I am a shareholder and which I declared in my SALN,” Mikey said in reaction to the VERA Files report.
The VERA Files report had cited an entry in Mikey’s SALN for 2008 in which he declared himself a “shareholder” in Beach Way Park, a company sharing the same address, “Beach Park Blvd., California,” as his Foster City property. The San Mateo County Assessor’s Office, however, yielded no record of Beach Way Park or its ownership of the Foster City property, which the couple bought in 2006.
Instead, the most recent transaction on record at the assessor’s office was between IndyMac Bank and Angela coursed through the Mortgage Electronic Registration System in which the deed was reconveyed or returned to her, not to Beach Way Park. The transaction was recorded on April 15, 2008.
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, also 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.”
Although Mikey listed Beach Way Park’s address as Beach Park Blvd. in California, lawyers consulted by VERA Files said the Arroyos could have registered the company in another state.
LLCs or limited liability companies in the U.S. are small businesses similar to single proprietorships in the Philippines and can be set up even with just one person as shareholder.
“The limited liability company (LLC ) is now the most common legal entity chosen by small business owners,” said the LLC Expert, a website specializing in the setting up of LLCs. “When you create an LLC, you take the first step in smart business protection planning. A properly formed limited liability company creates a legally enforceable layer of protection between you personally and your business.”
Mikey denied having been contacted by VERA Files. But VERA Files stands by its assertion that it repeatedly tried to contact him by text and calls on his two mobile phones.
Although Mikey, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s eldest child, issued a statement refuting his nondeclaration of the Foster City property, he did not address the other points in the story, which needed explaining.
Among the questions VERA Files sent to Mikey were: Why did he transfer his Redwood City condominium to Angela before selling it in 2005? Similarly, why did he transfer the Foster City property to Angela?
Mikey and Angela sold their Redwood City condominium for $900,000 in September 2005. At the time, his mother, President Gloria Arroyo, was facing impeachment charges for the “Hello, Garci” controversy, the revelation through wiretapped conversations that she called up Election Commissioner Virgilio Garciliano while votes for the 2004 presidential elections were being counted.
“The limited liability company (LLC ) is now the most common legal entity chosen by small business owners,” said the LLC Expert, a website specializing in the setting up of LLCs. “When you create an LLC, you take the first step in smart business-protection planning. A properly formed limited-liability company creates a legally enforceable layer of protection between you personally and your business.”
T HE house at 1655 Beach Park Blvd. in Foster City, California remains registered in the name of Angela Arroyo Montenegro, wife of presidential son and Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo, data from the San Mateo County assessor’s office show.
As of Monday, Aug. 31, the latest entry in the assessor’s office was dated April 2008 and shows Angela as the “grantee” of the property, which Mikey on Monday said he had already transferred to a company called Beach Way Park LLC as a way of explaining why the property did not appear in his 2007 and 2008 Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Network (SALN). LLC is short for Limited Liability Company.
“(The house) is registered under Beach Way Park LLC in which I am a shareholder and which I declared in my SALN,” Mikey said in reaction to the VERA Files report.
The VERA Files report had cited an entry in Mikey’s SALN for 2008 in which he declared himself a “shareholder” in Beach Way Park, a company sharing the same address, “Beach Park Blvd., California,” as his Foster City property. The San Mateo County Assessor’s Office, however, yielded no record of Beach Way Park or its ownership of the Foster City property, which the couple bought in 2006.
Instead, the most recent transaction on record at the assessor’s office was between IndyMac Bank and Angela coursed through the Mortgage Electronic Registration System in which the deed was reconveyed or returned to her, not to Beach Way Park. The transaction was recorded on April 15, 2008.
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, also 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.”
A lthough Mikey listed Beach Way Park’s address as Beach Park Blvd. in California, lawyers consulted by VERA Files said the Arroyos could have registered the company in another state.
LLCs or limited liability companies in the U.S. are small businesses similar to single proprietorships in the Philippines and can be set up even with just one person as shareholder.
“The limited liability company (LLC ) is now the most common legal entity chosen by small business owners,” said the LLC Expert, a website specializing in the setting up of LLCs. “When you create an LLC, you take the first step in smart business protection planning. A properly formed limited liability company creates a legally enforceable layer of protection between you personally and your business.”
Mikey denied having been contacted by VERA Files. But VERA Files stands by its assertion that it repeatedly tried to contact him by text and calls on his two mobile phones.
Although Mikey, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s eldest child, issued a statement refuting his nondeclaration of the Foster City property, he did not address the other points in the story, which needed explaining.
Among the questions VERA Files sent to Mikey were: Why did he transfer his Redwood City condominium to Angela before selling it in 2005? Similarly, why did he transfer the Foster City property to Angela?
Mikey and Angela sold their Redwood City condominium for $900,000 in September 2005. At the time, his mother, President Gloria Arroyo, was facing impeachment charges for the “Hello, Garci” controversy, the revelation through wiretapped conversations that she called up Election Commissioner Virgilio Garciliano while votes for the 2004 presidential elections were being counted. # # #
© Copyright VERA Files. All rights reserved. Permission to reprint obtained by Mr. Paglinawan.
Newer news items:
Older news items:
|
Subject: [PhilippineUpdate.com] c'mon Mikey, you financial genius (haha) speak up
To: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Cc: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Date: Tuesday, September 1, 2009, 12:37 AM
You were, therefore, required by law to submit your first ever SALN. I'm
sure you took the filing seriously. Hence, in 1993 you declared you had
P50,000 pesos which you listed under the item - “cash on hand/cash in
bank”.
Life was beautiful. You had no liabilities (utang).
Now let's jump to last year when your total assets (based on your
December 2008 SALN) was listed at a whopping P150,253,644.95 (or US
$3,078,968.13).
You're a dollar millionaire now. Wow. Gosh. How'd you do that?
Let's see now -
1993 – you worked with mom – P50,000 assets. Net worth same due to
zero liabilities.
1994 – still worked with mom – P320,000 assets (of which P120,000 was
cash and P200,000 personal effects,). Net worth also P320,000 because
of zero liabilities.
Then your assets paper trail disappeared. You must have taken some
time off. From 1996 to 1997, you studied Business Administration at
the University of California in Berkeley, you once told me in a 2005
one-on-one interview.
The next time your SALN surfaced was in 2001 when you got elected
provincial vice-governor of Pampanga.
You also tried breaking into the movie business, appearing in mostly
bit or supporting roles and a few leading roles. By 2001, your
P320,000 assets had grown to P5,721,787.29, broken down as follows:
P3,327,686.12 in cash
P2,144,101.17 in shares of stock
P250,000 worth of personal effects
With zero liabilities, your net worth was the same as your assets.
It took you only four years (excluding time off for Berkeley) for you
to earn P5 million. Cool.
Now let's do a quick rundown of your total assets' amazing growth, all
based on your available SALN:
1993 - P50,000 – zero liabilities
1994 – P320,000 – zero liabilities
2001 - P5,721,787.29 - zero liabilities
2002 - P5.003 million – zero liabilities
2004 - P76,531,403.96 – zero liabilities
2005 - P138,751,403.96 - P61.8 million liabilities
2006 - P167,971,403.96 – P78.4 million liabilities
2007 - P154,972,409.95 – P58,224,476.29 liabilities
2008 - P156,122,409.90 – P56,874,476.20 liabilities
The biggest jump in your assets (by roughly P71 million) was between
2002 and 2004 when you were a newly-elected congressman.
Could it have been due to your budding movie career? But it wasn't
that great, according to well-known entertainment columnist Ricky Lo
who interviewed you in July 2003. He wrote afterwards: “As an actor,
he’s tagged as a "TH" (as in Trying Hard) and critics of GMA (your
mom) and her administration had a field day poking fun at Mikey and
his mom (poor GMA!) when his starrer called Di Kita Ma-Reach finished
at the tail end of the Metro Manila Film Festival three years ago.”
In 2002, you married your second cousin, Maria Angela. Perhaps she
brought in the fortune?
Last year you listed her as board director in five companies owned and
run by her family years before you two got married. These are:
H.M. Montenegro Co. Inc
Pacific Activated Carbon Co. Inc
Pacific Activated Carbon Co. Intl.
Titan Megatiles Industrial Corp
Titan Mega Bags Industrial Corp. .
A quick check with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows most
of these companies are in bad shape.
H.M. Montenegro Co. Inc, also listed as H.M. Montenegro and Asso.
Inc., is the holding company for eight family-owned firms.
Two of the companies earned modest amounts:
Titan Mega Bags Industrial Corporation's last financial statement was
for the year 2000: listing P576 million in assets. But its net
operating income before tax that year was a negative P5.55 million.
“Other income” raised this to P24.3 million.
The last financial statement filed by Titan Megatiles Industrial Corp
was for 2002 when it declared operational losses of P7.988 million.
But earnings outside operations gave it a P6.48 million net income.
Pacific Activated Carbon Co., Inc earned a net income of P30.6 million
in 2002.
Again between 2004 and 2005, your assets grew by some P62 million or
from P76.5 million to P138.75 million.
In 2005, according to Vera Files, you sold a condominium in California
for US$900,000 – something that wasn't disclosed in your 2004 SALN.
The following year, California land records showed you transferring
THE lovely Beach Park property in your wife's name. Lucky wife.
Below is a copy of the real estate details of Beach Front, courtesy of
Manolo Quezon:
View at EasyCaptures.com
View at EasyCaptures.com
And so your conjugal assets kept growing
Let's assume this jump in assets was due to borrowings and not to
kickbacks from the illegal gambling game jueteng - which you were
accused of in 2005. Which you told me was a lie.
You said then: “When you are the incumbent president's son, many
sectors want to see you fail rather than succeed. Oppositors to my
mom, if they can't hit her they hit me.”
This week you attributed malice, ignorance and recklessness to Ellen,
Yvonne,Avigail and Luz of Vera Files. You said they never called you
but they said you refused to answer their mobile text messages and
calls.
I've covered beats with Ellen and Yvonne and I know how they can be
very persistent in nailing stories. In fact your mom, President
Arroyo, held the same opinion back in October 2005 when she was being
asked if she would pursue criminal charges against then President
Joseph Estrada if he resigned.
She replied: “Right now I'm already hearing many suggestions about
that. Neal Cruz has his suggestions. Ellen Tordesillas keeps asking me
about that with very suggestive questions....So I'm listening to the
consensus that's being formulated.”
Last year you declared debts worth P56,874,476.20
Let's just do some mental exercise. If we assume you had to pay 8%
yearly interest on that, you would have to shell out P4.55 million in
interest payments alone for that year. No problem. You had P51.6
million in cash.
Never mind if as a legislator you only earn P420,000 a year. Do tell
how you managed to generate all that cash that has enabled you to
afford your debt, build a mansion in La Vista, Quezon City, buy a
million dollar property in California and still maintain a wealthy
lifestyle.
I even heard one of your government-paid bodyguards has the job of
making sure your Phillipe Patek watch isn't snatched from your wrist.
I haven't verified that. Perhaps you could.
Is it like this one below?
But here's the thing, your parents declared in 2008 assets worth
P171.843 million pesos after nearly a lifetime of working.
How did you manage to nearly equal their worth in just 15 years
without ever being a corporate CEO? Yeah, you are the president of
Mikey's Horseman Bar and Grill Inc starting 2006. That must be a lot
of barbecue you grilled.
You've beaten all the odds. And so I wanna know. Please, please, I
wanna know.