Palace to public: Don’t judge presidential sons over US properties

Malacañang defended Monday presidential sons Juan Miguel and Diosdado Arroyo over their purchase of luxury homes in the United States after the two were elected congressmen in the 2007 elections. Deputy presidential spokesman Anthony Golez Jr. said people should not judge them and should instead wait for the two congressmen or their lawyers to air their explanations. “Una sa lahat siguro merong explanation para sa allegation na yan. Although 'di kami ang spokesman ni Congressman Mikey at Dato, ang masasabi natin, bago natin husgahan o bigyan ng malisya ang issue na ito kailangan mapakinggan ang side ng dalawang congressman)," Golez said in an interview on dzXL radio. (There must be an explanation in response to the these allegations. While we cannot speak for the two congressmen, we ask the public not to judge them until they give their side.) The SALNs of the Arroyo brothers show them both acquiring houses in the US, not to mention local business interests, after winning seats in Congress. Pampanga Rep. “Mikey" Arroyo failed to declare in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Networth (SALN) for the last two years a $1.32 million or P63.7 million beachfront property in the San Francisco Bay Area in California, which he bought and then transferred to the name of his wife Angela in 2006. Data from the San Mateo County assessor’s office show that Mikey transferred and registered the house under the name of his wife, Angela Arroyo Montenegro, in August 2006 in what is called an “interfamily transfer." The house, located at 1655 Beach Park Blvd in Foster City in San Mateo County, is now up for sale, but does not appear in Mikey’s 2007 and 2008 SALN. Under the California Family Code, community ownership of a property acquired during marriage may be transferred or “transmuted" to one spouse by formal agreement. SALN guidelines But even if Mikey relinquished to his wife any right to the property, guidelines for the filing of SALNs in the Philippines require public officials to declare property owned by their spouses. Dato and his wife Victoria Celina Manotok purchased a P26.7-million property in San Francisco barely a year after he won his congressional seat in 2007. Unlike Mikey, Dato declared ownership of the property in his 2008 SALN. Mikey, the eldest of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s three children, did declare a “residential house" in the US in his SALN for 2005 and 2006, during his first term as representative of Pampanga’s second district. But he never reported the location of his US property as required by filing guidelines. The 2005 and 2006 disclosures do not say whether Mikey was referring to a single property or to two different houses. In 2005, he merely listed the acquisition value at P49.5 million in what he reported was an “installment sale." A year later, the value of the unspecified property was pegged at P63.7 million. Mikey also declared himself a “shareholder" in a company called Beach Way Park located on “Beach Park Blvd California," the same street where the Foster City property is located. Unlike his other business interests, he did not say when he acquired the shares in this company. - GMANews.TV