Yanson clan rift escalates as mom holds own board meeting

By Dolly Yasa

BACOLOD City – The rift within the Yanson clan, owner and operator of Ceres buses all over the country, worsens as matriarch Olivia V. Yanson led a board meeting of another disputed family company on Sunday.

Olivia led the stockholders of Bachelor Express Inc., a sister company of Vallacar Transit Inc. (VTI), in a meeting on Jan 19, 2020 where they elected the members of the board of directors.

The Yanson-owned VTI is the country’s largest bus transport company.

The Bachelor Express board subsequently re-appointed Leo Rey V. Yanson as company president.

Under the company’s by-laws, the annual stockholders’ meeting of Bachelor Express should be held every third Sunday of January at its principal office.

Pursuant to the by-laws, the annual stockholders meeting was held at the company’s principal office in Bulua, Cagayan de Oro.

The stockholders re-elected Olivia V. Yanson, Leo Rey V. Yanson, Ginnette Y. Dumancas, Charles M. Dumancas, Arvin John V. Villaruel, Rey C. Ardo, Anita G. Chua, Daniel Nicolas P. Golez, Danny O. Lorenton, Hernan B. Omecillo and Alfredo O. Ligo, Jr. as members of the board of directors.

The elected directors will serve for one year until January 2021, or until their successors shall have been duly elected and qualified.

The meeting was presided by chairman and president Leo Rey Yanson and corporate secretary and treasurer Olivia Yanson.

Following the election of the directors, the board also held an organizational meeting and re-appointed Leo Rey Yanson as president and CEO of the company and Olivia V. Yanson as treasurer and corporate secretary.

The stockholders also ratified the acts of the board of directors led by Leo Rey Yanson.

Bachelor Express is a part of the Yanson Group of Bus Companies which operates throughout the Philippines including in the cities of Bacolod, Iloilo, Dumaguete, Cebu, Cagayan De Oro, Butuan, Davao, Pagadian, Dipolog, Bohol and Batangas.

Incidentally, another faction of the Yansons – Roy, Ricardo Jr., Emily and Celina Lopez (also referred to as the Yanson 4) – elected Emily as president of Bachelor Express Inc.

In a statement issued on Monday, by Atty. Carlo Joaquin Narvasa said the annual Bachelor Express shareholders meeting was held on Jan. 19, 2020 at Seda Centrio Hotel in Cagayan de Oro City with Roy as presiding officer and chairman.

Elected to the board of directors for 2020-2021 are the Yanson 4, Jerina Louise Ramos, and Matthew Agustine Lopez.

Narvasa said that during the meeting, the shareholders resolved to ratify all the acts and transactions of the Board of Directors and management of the corporation under Roy’s leadership.

The shareholders also rejected all unauthorized acts by the camp of Leo Rey Yanson and asked him and their sibling, Ginnette Yanson-Dumancas, to submit an accounting of corporate funds, properties, and papers of the company for 2019, Narvasa said.