J. Amado Araneta

His descendants have gone on to be successful in a variety of professions. His granddaughter Margarita Forés was named the best female chef in Asia in 2016. His grandson Mar Roxas ran for President as the Liberal Party candidate at the 2016 Philippine presidential election, which he lost to Rodrigo Duterte.

Araneta died in November 17, 1985 and his family took his remains back to Manila. His remains were buried at the Loyola Memorial Park in Marikina, some three months prior to the fall of the regime which had led to his political exile.

Following the 1973 Constitution of the Philippines and the paramilitary style rule of the new government under Ferdinand Marcos, Araneta took himself and his family out of the country. He resided in New York City until his death. While in exile, his businesses in the Philippines were controlled remotely.

One of Araneta's most well known projects is the development of the area known as the Araneta Center in Quezon City, east of Manila, with the Araneta Coliseum at its heart. He purchased the land in 1952, which at the time contained a series of radio towers, with the idea that there would be a series of landmark buildings in the area. He had identified the area as being at the crossroads of Cubao, where city people would pass daily but was underdeveloped. He began the construction of the Coliseum in 1957, and was completed in 1959 as then the largest indoor stadium in the world. It opened on 16 March 1960, hosting the boxing card featuring the main event bout between Gabriel Elorde and Harold Gomes.

With his business initially involvement in sugar plantations, Araneta changed Filipino cultural awareness in the 1930s, when he purchased two American television stations and begun broadcasting local content for the first time.

Jesús Amado "Amading" Sitchon Araneta (February 26, 1907 – November 17, 1985) was a Filipino businessman. He was initially involved in sugar plantations, but invested in commercial real estate following the Second World War. He is best known for the development of the Araneta Center in Quezon City and for his influence in the Philippines both before and after the Second World War.

Araneta was born on February 26, 1907 at Bago, Negros Occidental, as the fourth of ten siblings. He finished primary and high school at the De La Salle University in Manila and graduated college with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) from the University of the Philippines Manila in 1930. He also helped fund the yearbook "Philippinesian" and "The Literary Apprentice" magazine. After graduating, he entered many business ventures, ranging from sugar planting, mining, retail and real estate development, newspaper and magazine publishing, logging, investments, stocks, and sports promotions. He was also involved in other ventures such as in oil processing, perfumery, film production, and jute sack processing companies.