ShareThisBy VERA FILES
A company partly owned by former First Son and current party-list Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo recently sold for $1.125 million a controversial house in upscale Foster City, California that used to belong to him and his wife Angela, and transferred the deed of ownership just last month, according to real estate websites and the San Mateo County Assessor-Recorder’s Office.
The five-bedroom beachfront house at 1655 Beach Park Blvd. was sold by Beachway LLC, a company Arroyo admitted to being part owner, with the transaction reported to the San Mateo County Assessor’s office on March 16.
The property was transferred to Mary Grace Apolinario and Jerome Ngo who appear in the county’s database as “grantees” or buyers. The buyers are owners of the restaurant chain “Gerry’s Grill” who, sources said, are good friends of Mikey.
The San Mateo County Recorder’s Office also shows a transfer tax of $1,237.50 was paid, in the document listed as No. 2011-031097.
The real estate website Zillow reported the sale of the Foster City property at $1.125 million, but its own estimate showed the house was worth $1,003,500.
As of April 1, 2011, however, Beachway LLC’s address was still listed as “1655 Beach Park Blvd., Foster City” in the California Business Records database.
VERA Files sources in California also revealed that although Arroyo has claimed owning at most 40 percent of the company, and therefore was only part owner of the house, visitors to the Foster City property have been left without a doubt as to its occupants’ identities.
These sources provided VERA Files a photo of the living room of the house at 1655 Beach Park Blvd. before it was sold. On a side table sat a picture of the young Arroyo couple, while on the wall above the couch hung a painting of former president Gloria Arroyo taking her oath of office on Jan. 20, 2001.
VERA Files texted Beachway LLC manager Antonio Mariano Almeda but received no replies. It also tried calling him, but his cell phone was out of reach.
The house forms part of the evidence listed by the Bureau of Internal Revenue, which is accusing Arroyo and his wife Angela of amassing millions of pesos worth of real estate and other property for the years 2004 to 2009, but failing to pay their taxes.