YANSON MA ON MEETING WITH ROY: ‘We did not talk about reconciliation’

By: Dolly Yasa

BACOLOD City – Olivia Villafor Yanson, the matriarch of the Yanson clan, refuted statements of her son Roy that they discussed reconciliation when they met recently.

In a statement sent to the media during the weekend, Olivia said Roy did not mention about patching up their family squabble over control of Vallacar Transit Inc. (VTI), operator of Ceres Bus Liner.

“In our 2-hour discussion when he visited me in the house, he never mentioned he was there to say sorry about all of this or he will gather all his siblings to start the reconciliation process,” she added.

Olivia said Roy “the reason for the said meeting was to invite and convince me to attend the wedding of his daughter Casey in Bohol this coming September.”

The matriarch also told her children Roy, Celina Emily and Ricky Jr., also known as Yanson 4, that “it is unwise to impose pre-conditions and make them public if you are genuinely, truly sincere in your intention for reconciliation talks.”

She said that while Roy has suggested to stop issuing public statements and instead discuss family issues privately behind closed doors, “in the last few days they had a press conference and had been issuing press statements for public sympathy.”

Olivia said “you seem to have the pattern of provoking and then tell the whole world that you are the victims in all this mess.”

She added that while Roy made the public believe through his press conference that that he wants to reconcile “but how can we reconcile if even before we meet he has already set conditions that they will not return my shares or give me voting rights that I requested from them?”

Olivia lamented that “they keep on repeating that I have zero shares in the company, so why can’t they be generous to give me back my shares?”

“Did they forget how they acquired those shares? When they were in need I was there for them as attested by Roy especially when he was starting his family because he married at a very young age. Me and my husband were very generous with all of them to make sure they live a comfortable life and now that I am old they cannot do it for me as their mother? If you are sincere let us meet with empty hands,” she further said.

Olivia also chided Celina for harping on the P380-million missing funds of VTI in her bid to seek justice and clear her name of any anomalies in their bus company.

“Why only now after SGV’s report had come out?” Olivia asked, referring to an audit report on VTI.

“In several occasions that the internal auditor wanted to audit her on the missing funds she did not cooperate, the SGV was also commissioned to look for the missing funds and how it can be prevented in the future but she and her staff did not also cooperate.”

“If you were not hiding anything why not cooperate? The auditors were there to understand how it happened, why it happened and how to prevent it from happening, instead what did you do? You run to your four siblings and claim you are being bullied and I am playing favorites. Treasury is under your watch and these anomalies could not have happened or could have been minimized if you are really doing your job, you should have heed my advise then, to take a leave and let me look at why the funds are missing,” Olivia further said.

The ongoing verbal exchange between the Yanson matriarch and her daughter Celina about the alleged missing P380 million fund of VTI is still an offshoot of the ongoing feud among the siblings that started when the Yanson 4 staged a coup against their brother Leo Rey who was then the President and CEO.

The four held a board meeting July 7, 2019 where they dismissed Leo Rey and voted Roy as president.

They also took over the VTI head office and the south bound terminal.

However, Leo with his mother Olivia and sister Ginnette, recovered control of the VTI head office and the southbound terminal and in a board meeting held last Aug 19, 2019, they reorganized the board and stripped Celina and Emily of their positions as Treasurer and Corporate Secretary, respectively.

In the said board meeting, Leo Rey retained the presidency, while Charles, husband of Ginnette, was made Vice President.

Ginnette was elected treasurer and Olivia as corporate secretary.