‘Don’t destroy our company’

By: Francis Allan L. Angelo

THE feud within the owners of the biggest bus firm in the country rages on despite the peace offering from one of the parties.

In a statement, Roy Yanson, who replaced his younger brother Leo Rey as president of the Yanson Group of Bus Companies (YGBC) two weeks ago, extended the proverbial olive branch to his siblings Leo Rey and Ginneth and their mother Olivia.

YGBC owns Vallacar Transit Inc., operator of the Ceres bus lines in Visayas and Mindanao.

“Let me extend the olive branch to Leo Rey, Ginneth and my mom. Together, let us continue dad’s legacy. Respect the law. Value the lives of our employees. As they say, united we stand, divided we fall. I will be willing to sacrifice my life to fight those who will cause the destruction of this company. I am sure my other brothers and sisters will do the same thing,” Roy said.

Roy said he will not agree with Leo Rey’s suggestion to divide their business through a coin toss.

“Let me assure everyone – I will not agree to the suggestion of our younger brother, Leo Rey to just break up this company which my dad built from scratch and leave its fate on a toss coin between us. Leo Rey wanted to divide dad’s company. Leo Rey probably thinks this is a popularity contest where the winner is the most popular and deserves a share of the empire. This explains why he, together with several others, continue trying to disrupt operations by coercing our employees to support a fake strike and preventing our security agency from doing their jobs.”

Roy said his peace offering is meant to protect the jobs of more than 18,000 YGBS employees who are now affected by his row with Leo Rey and Olivia.

“Let us not break our company. I, together with our Board, our New Management and these 18,000 strong employees will remain committed to bring growth to this company which we have been part of our lives for three decades now,” he added.

 

CHARGES

Meanwhile, Roy condemned the move of four high-ranking officers of the PACIWU-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (PACIWU-TUCP) to instigate a “fake strike” within YGBC.

Roy said the union officers “are facing legal charges after committing serious unfair labor practices aimed at destabilizing operations of a bus company in Bacolod City and make it appear that workers are poised to strike.”

In a complaint filed through his legal counsel, Atty. Sigfrid Fortun, Roy Yanson alongside several bus drivers and conductors of Vallacar Transit narrated how several union leaders allegedly tried to coerce several of their bus drivers and conductors to disrupt bus services for more than three hours.

The incident happened last July 14, when union leaders led by executive vice president Rey dela Torre, board members Juvy Diama and Raymond Roldan and chapter president Franny Santarin entered the Vallacar North bus terminal at around 3 p.m.

Dela Torre, Diama, Roldan and Santarin allegedly urged bus drivers to stop working and group themselves together to make it appear that they are mounting a strike against the bus management.

“Respondents wanted to make it appear as if employees are engaging in a strike,” says Roy in the complaint affidavit filed before the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) of the Department of Labor in Region VI based in Bacolod City.

But hundreds of bus drivers and conductors went against the wishes of these union leaders. They told the leaders that Vallacar employees are not siding with any faction in the ongoing management row and they asked to be left alone to do their jobs.

“We vehemently refused to comply with their instruction and replied that we have to work and that we cannot be part of the stoppage of work and their plans. We did not participate in their plan because we did not want to paralyze the operations and services to the riding public,” one of the complainant bus drivers narrated in his affidavit.

Seeing that they failed, terminal operations manager Rald Cena came to the scene by demanding that bus drivers surrender their cash collection and bus tickets.

Cena even asked that the drivers park their buses inside the garage area, effectively disrupting operations and causing undue delays to hundreds of commuters who were in the terminal awaiting their rides.

Complainants are asking the NLRC to find these union leaders liable for unfair labor practices and restrain them from inciting, influencing and convincing bus employees to strike or conduct work stoppages.

Bus operations remain normal in all 15 terminals under the control of the new bus management, Roy Yanson said.