VTI offices ransacked, documents missing

By: Dolly Yasa

BACOLOD City – The lawyer of Vallacar Transit Inc. (VTI) President and CEO Leo Rey Yanson said company offices inside the VTI headquarters at Barangay Mansilingan here were ransacked by unidentified individuals last Friday prior to their takeover.

VTI, a subsidiary of the Yanson Group of Bus Companies, operates Ceres Bus Liner, one of the biggest transportation businesses in Visayas and Mindanao.

Atty. Norman Golez said that based on their initial auditing and inventory over the weekend, around 3,000 official receipts and certificates of registration (ORs/CRs) for their bus units and 800 land titles are unaccounted for.

Golez, together with Leo Rey Yanson and his sister Ginnette Yanson Dumancas and their mother Olivia, held a press conference Saturday inside the VTI compound.

Leo Rey is at loggerheads with his sibling Roy Yanson for the control of the family’s multi- billion peso bus company.

Leo Rey regained control of the VTI head office Friday after PNP personnel stormed the premises to enforce the order of the Supervising Office for Security and Investigation Agency (SOSIA) to install AGNSA Security Agency in the premises.

Roy’s other siblings – Celina, Emily and Ricardo Jr. – who held their ground at the administrative office of the VTI eventually left the premises after electricity and water supplies were cut off Friday noon.

Aside from the missing documents, several computer units and hard drives are also reported missing, Golez said.

A search of the headquarters compound also yielded several molotov cocktails, improvised clubs, and axes, prompting suspicions that the camp of Roy were prepared to fight the police and the AGNSA.

Golez also confirmed that all bus units stored inside the Dynamic Builders compound in Barangay Alijis have been recovered although some of the units’ tires were deflated.

Leo Rey condemned the damaged to their bus units.

“This is clearly an act of sabotage,” Leo Rey said.

When asked if there is any chance at all that they will reconcile, Leo Rey said all his siblings – Roy, Celina, Emily, and Ricardo – have to do is to respect their mother.

In response to the call of Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson for the family to settle the dispute among themselves, Leo Rey said “He (Gov. Lacson,) should tell that to Emily.”

Lacson is Emily Yanson’s boyfriend.

In the meantime, Golez said they will continue with the audit to determine which other items are missing.

Golez also confirmed that an employee allied with Leo Rey was doused with paint thinner by an unidentified suspect from inside the VTI compound. The employee suffered burns.

Golez said that it was then the police decided to go inside by breaking the concrete wall with a mallet.

Roy Yanson’s supporters, meanwhile, denied allegations that they started the commotion first.

In response to the incident, Roy Yanson filed a petition for a writ of amparo before the Supreme Court against the top brass of the PNP including Director-General Oscar Albayalde; Police Regional Office-6 director, Brigadier General Rene Pamuspusan; and acting PNP-SOSIA chief, Police Colonel Michael Dubria.

The petition for a writ of amparo is a remedy available to any person whose right to life, liberty and security is violated or threatened with violation by an unlawful act or omission of a public official or employee, or of a private individual or entity

Yanson matriarch Olivia denied speculations that Malacañang is behind the moves of Leo Rey in regaining the South Ceres Terminal and the VTI Head Office.

She said the President called her last July 7, 2019 when the camp of Roy took over the VTI head office but she said the President told her to get a lawyer and go to court.

“We are friends,” she said.

As to the group of Roy, Olivia said, she is done appealing to them.

“Nag-luhod na ko na sa ila (I already kneeled before them),” she said.

She said if there is somebody who should initiate reconciliation, it should be the camp of Roy.

“I will negotiate but I will bring a lawyer with me.”

Meanwhile, Golez said that there is a continuing threat from Roy’s group to take over any of the 15 offices of the bus company but his client is not letting his guard down.