AT A GLANCE
- Former House speaker Martin Romualdez transferred a $2.24-million (P130.5 million)* Massachusetts property he purchased in 1988 to a corporation for just $US1.
- The recipient corporation’s listed director sits on the board of directors of the Romualdez-owned Benguet Corporation and is also his fraternity brother.
- The transaction took place in July 2025, just a few months before controversies surrounding government infrastructure projects came to light and before the President’s State of the Nation Address.
Former House speaker and presidential cousin Martin Romualdez transferred a $2.24-million (P130.5 million) Massachusetts property to a corporation for just $1 on July 29, 2025.
Documents obtained by Rappler show that the recipient corporation’s registered president has personal ties to Romualdez, and the transfer was executed through a quitclaim deed “for a nominal consideration of $1.”
US government records list the 6.25-acre (2.5-hectare) estate in Dover, Massachusetts under “ROMUALDEZ FERDINAND MARTIN G,” the full name of the House Speaker, whose middle name is Gomez, as indicated in his 2025 certificate of candidacy.
An April 2025 document from the Dover Planning Board identified “Martin Romualdez” as the property owner in meeting minutes that discussed and approved renovation plans for the estate. A 1993 tax record likewise named the owner as “MARTIN G. FERDINAND ROMUALDEZ,” consistent with his full name.
The property has been in Romualdez’s name since 1988, but significant developments unfolded earlier this year.
In April 2025, Romualdez issued a power of attorney to a certain Justin Marques, according to an affidavit filed by Marques. On July 1, Romualdez signed the quitclaim deed transferring ownership to a corporation named AMMY INC. for only $1.
A quitclaim deed is not unusual, as it is a legal means of transferring property, according to US-based realtors and two lawyers Rappler spoke with. This kind of deed primarily protects the grantor from future litigation over the property and frees the seller from any possible future liabilities.
The deed typically indicates a payment for the transfer, though the minimum amount varies by state. In Massachusetts, there is no required “amount” for a quitclaim deed. However, this does not prevent the parties from conducting a separate transaction involving a significant sum of money related to the property.
What makes Romualdez’s transaction stand out is a multimillion-dollar estate being turned over to a corporation for practically no payment at all. This is a move that, while lawful, could raise questions about intent.
A US-based lawyer told Rappler that the transaction could count as a “fraudulent conveyance” because it may be used to hide assets from creditors.
Simply put, if an institution tries to go after this Romualdez property which has already been sold to another entity for a miniscule amount, the institution can no longer claim the property or any profits from its sale.
Another US-based lawyer experienced in fraud and money laundering cases explained that quit claims are common for various reasons, including estate planning. He, however, noted that what matters is Romualdez’s purpose in using this method.
The deal could raise concerns if it were meant to hide the property’s true ownership, such as if the politician no longer lists it as his but still controls the corporation that holds it.
Rappler reached out to Romualdez for comment but has yet to receive a response. We first sent questions via email to his office at the House of Representatives and his official Facebook page on October 16, and followed up on October 20 and 21, through email and phone call.
We also sent Viber messages to his two known numbers late October 16 and followed up on October 17, 18, 20, and 21. The messaging app showed that he had seen these messages.
We will update this story once we receive a response.
This isn’t the first time Romualdez shed one of his assets this year. In March 2025, he sold his 20% stake in construction firm EEI Corporation to its CEO, Henry Antonio, through a management buyout. By October, EEI — a known construction and engineering company — had taken over the firm that owns the defunct POGO hub Island Cove in Kawit, Cavite.
Transferring below property value
The $1 cited in the quitclaim deed is a stark contrast to the property’s true worth, based on US official government records and the affluent demographics of the neighborhood.
A 2025 assessment placed the property’s worth at $2.244 million (P130.5 million).
The land is valued at $971,500 (P56.5 million) while the colonial-style home, built around 1930, is worth $1.268 million (P73.8 million). The two-story house reportedly has 10 rooms, including four bedrooms, and was acquired by Romualdez in 1988 for $650,000.
The property sits in Dover, an affluent town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts.
Dover ranks as the wealthiest town in the state going by per capita income. The median household income in 2024 was pegged at $250,000 (P14.5 million), according to the US Census Bureau. The median value of houses in Dover is $1.74 million (P101.24 million), according to property website Zillow.
The property identified with Romualdez is less than 48 kilometers, or an approximate 35-minute drive, from Boston. It is also about 32 kilometers, or 30 minutes, from Harvard University, where the former House speaker allegedly donated in 2023 around P117 million ($2 million) to help fund the university’s first-ever Filipino language course.
AMMY INC ties to Romualdez
The discrepancy between the deed’s nominal amount of $1 and the property’s actual value is just one of several details that make the transaction unusual. The company that received Romualdez’s property also has a background that raises serious questions about the deal.
The quitclaim deed described the buyer AMMY INC. as a “corporation organized under the laws of Delaware and registered as a foreign corporation with the Secretary of the Commonwealth Corporations Division.”
Delaware State records show that AMMY INC. was formed only on June 20, 2024. The deed also showed that the registered mailing address of AMMY INC. is, oddly, a two-story house in a residential area, based on Google Maps.
AMMY INC.’s registered agent is a certain “THE CORPORATION TRUST COMPANY” or CT Corporation, a US-based firm that helps individuals and entities set up corporations.
AMMY INC. also holds a certificate of registration as a foreign corporation, filed in Massachusetts only last May 28, 2025. The certificate lists the same registered agent, CT Corporation.
Two individuals are named in this specific filing of AMMY INC: “Andrew Casino” as president and Ma. Cristina Giori as secretary. Their listed business address is somewhere in Woodside, New York — Woodside is in the Queens borough, which hosts the largest concentration of Filipino-Americans in New York City. The Woodside address is identical to that of a travel agency owned by Filipino-Americans, based on photos posted on the agency’s public social media pages.
A person named “Andrew Patrick R. Casiño” also sits on the Board of Directors of Benguet Corporation, owned by the Romualdez family. His profile indicates that he joined Benguet Corp. as director in June 2020 and has been a litigation lawyer “with 25-year work experience as a practicing lawyer in New York State” covering various fields, including Philippine law matters and real estate, among others.
Rappler traced Casiño’s lawyer registration through New York State’s Unified Court System, which showed multiple matches with his Benguet Corp. profile and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the Philippines. These include his full name, law school, and year of admission to the New York Bar. His registered address in New York also corresponds to the address listed in AMMY INC’s registration papers in Massachusetts.
The signatures of Casiño on both the SEC filing and AMMY INC’s document are identical.
Further digging revealed a personal connection. Casiño is a fraternity brother of Romualdez in Upsilon Sigma Phi. A photo gallery featuring Upsilon alumni shows his name and picture, describing him as a “Davao-born, New York-based lawyer.” A March 2016 Facebook post by the Department of Foreign Affairs also identified him as a member of the Upsilon fraternity.
Rappler also reached out to Casiño on October 16 through his New York law office’s publicly-listed email address and via Benguet Corporation. We followed up on October 17, 20, and 21.
Rappler also sent Viber messages and iMessages to his publicly-listed cellphone number on October 20 and 21. Viber indicated that he was online several times after the messages were sent. We will update this story once we get a response.
Property from 1988
These recent transactions are not the only controversial elements of the multi-million-dollar property. Earlier transfers and dealings related to the property could also raise questions about its ownership and history.
The Massachusetts property was transferred to Romualdez in 1988 for the amount of $650,000. At that time, a US dollar was equivalent to almost P21, according to data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
This means that the then-25-year-old Romualdez bought the property for P13.7 million.
The date of purchase was two years after Romualdez’s uncle, the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, was ousted from office after more than two decades of rule. During this time, the Presidential Commission on Good Government had already been established to recover the Marcoses’ ill-gotten wealth.
According to the 1988 deed, the property was sold to Romualdez by another corporation, 114 Centre Street Inc. The same document identified a certain Lydia C. Nicasio as the corporation’s president and treasurer.
The corporation’s first filing papers in 1984 listed Nicasio as its clerk. It was dissolved in 1998.
A Lydia Nicasio was named as one of the many co-defendants in a case initiated by the PCGG against former Leyte governor Benjamin “Kokoy” Romualdez, Martin’s father and Imelda Marcos’ brother.
A drop in the ocean for Romualdez
The $2.44-million (P130.5-million) property in Dover, Massachusetts is just one of several multi-million-peso assets linked to Romualdez and his family. They have been tied to multiple high-value assets both in the Philippines and abroad over the years.
Romualdez’s net worth stood at P475.6 million, at least in 2016, when the House of Representatives last publicly released summaries of its members’ net worths.
These are once again under scrutiny amid renewed controversy over government infrastructure projects. A former security consultant of resigned lawmaker Zaldy Co, a known ally of Romualdez, alleged that he personally delivered luggages filled with cash to several of Romualdez’s residences.
One delivery to the House Speaker’s Forbes Park home in Makati City reportedly included around 35 pieces of luggage, each allegedly containing between P48 million and P50 million.
Romualdez resigned as House speaker in September “after deep reflection and prayer” and “with a full heart and a clear conscience.” He said his resignation would allow the newly-formed Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) to “pursue its mandate freely and fully — without doubt, without interference, and without undue influence.”
Romualdez first appeared before the ICI on October 14, telling the public afterwards that he had “nothing to hide.” He later asked for a postponement of the second hearing scheduled on Wednesday, October 22, as he was scheduled for a medical procedure.
What could be the presidential cousin’s next move? – Rappler.com
*US$1 = P58