Claim: AKKK party-list group is an advocate of micro, small and medium enterprises

Rating: NEEDS CONTEXT

Context:

Mufaida Alonto-Macatoman, first nominee of Ang Kabuhayang Kayang Kaya (AKKK) partylist group, wants to give a voice to “traders and small business” (Gutierrez, 2022, para. 2). In making sense of this claim, her professional background needs to be scrutinized.

Alonto-Macatoman is co-founder and current president and CEO of Global Empire International Group of Companies (About Us, n.d.; Kontra Daya, 2022). She is married to Abdulgani Macatoman, an undersecretary of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). He was chair of the Foreign Chamber Council of the Philippines (Undersecretary, Special Concerns, n.d.).

Global Empire International Group of Companies’ partners include Panasonic, NEC, and Cisco (Product overview, n.d.), as well as government agencies like the Departments of Agriculture; Environment and Natural Resources; and Social Welfare and Development (Government projects, n.d.).

While there is no reliable publicly available information on its revenues, Global Empire International Group of Companies holds office on the 28th floor of Atlanta Centre in Greenhills, San Juan City which is a “35-storey office condominium with world class, state-of-the art features [including] superior earthquake-resistant structure, 10 parking levels, 6 high Otis elevator, centralized PABX/LAN communication networks plus a Building Management System (BMS)” (Atlanta Centre, n.d., para. 1). To know how much it costs to rent an office at the Atlanta Centre, a publicly listed notice pegs it at P95,113 monthly for a 243.88 square-meter floor area, or around P390 per square meter (Lamudi, n.d.).

References:

  • About us. (n.d.). Global Empire International Group of Companies, Inc. https://globalempireinternational.com.ph/about-us/
  • Atlanta Centre. (n.d.). Atlanta Land Corporation. https://atlantalandcorporation.com/al_properties_atl.html
  • Government projects. (n.d.). Global Empire International Group of Companies, Inc. https://globalempireinternational.com.ph/government-projects/
  • Gutierrez, D. (2022, April 11). AKKK Partylist wants to represent MSMEs in Congress. Inquirer.net. https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1581401/akkk-partylist-wants-to-represent-msmes-in-congress
  • Kontra Daya. (2022). Study on partylist groups and candidates [Data set]. https://kontradaya.notion.site/Study-on-Partylist-Groups-and-Candidates-5c4d0ba04ef74e56a26e2c42558744f5
  • Lamudi. (n.d.). Office space for lease in Atlanta Center, Annapolis S., Greenhills, San Juan. https://www.lamudi.com.ph/office-space-for-lease-in-atlanta-center-annapolis-st-greenhills-san-juan.html
  • Product overview. (n.d.). Global Empire International Group of Companies, Inc. https://globalempireinternational.com.ph/
  • Undersecretary, Special Concerns. (n.d.). https://nha.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Usec-Macatoman-Bio.pdf

Note: Kontra Daya is a member of fact-checking groups Tsek.PH and #FactsFirstPH. Our independent fact-checks are part of our voter’s education program.

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