Yanson mom, daughter trade barbs over store rents

By: Dolly Yasa

BACOLOD City – The matriarch of the Yanson clan and one of her daughters traded barbs via the media over store rentals of the latter.

The latest spat between Olivia Yanson and her daughter Emily is an offshoot of the family squabble over control of their multimillion peso bus company.

Emily sided with her siblings Roy, Celina, and Ricardo Jr. against their youngest brother Leo Rey who has the support of Olivia and another sister Ginette Dumancas.

The Yansons own the Vallacar Transit, Inc. (VTI), operator of the Ceres Bus Liner.

In a letter, Olivia told Emily to vacate the Ceres North Terminal as she failed to pay rentals for her Ceres Mart.

“This is to inform you that since you have not paid any rent for the use of office spaces in the ground floor of Ceres North Terminal since its opening last July 2015, where your Ceres Mart is located. I am respectfully giving you 24 hours to vacate. This is our last and final demand,” Olivia’s letter read.

Emily replied in a letter to Olivia that the latter is not a stockholder of VTI which owns the terminal.

“I would like to inform you that the property where Ceres Mart is located is currently situated in a building owned by Vallacar Transit Inc. Based on records, you are not one of the stockholders of the said corporation and therefore you do not have authority whatsoever to demand for me to leave, vacate and/or abandon the said property,” Emily’s letter read.

“Furthermore, we had a family meeting wherein it was agreed that I would be able to use that property, among others free of any rent or charges. In fact there was a moratorium between us that I may use any property belonging to the company for the period of five years, free of any rent and or charges.”

Olivia reportedly padlocked the Ceres Mart at the terminal.

Meanwhile, the group of Roy Yanson filed cases against their brother Leo Rey and the security agency currently guarding the VTI headquarters and terminals.

The four charged the Armor Guard Security Agency (AGNSA) before the Bacolod City Prosecutor’s Office for grave coercion for supporting the “illegal orders” of Leo Rey, according to lawyer Raul Bito-on, spokesman of the four Yanson siblings.

Bito-on said Florencio Dobrea, general manager of AGNSA, and his staff identified as Raymond Santillan, Reynaldo Llena Jr., Harel Pelayo, and Jerold Datiles now face charges of grave coercion for supporting Leo Rey.

In an affidavit submitted by Vallacar Chief Financial Officer Celina Yanson-Lopez and Board Corporate Secretary Emily Yanson to the Bacolod City prosecutors’ office, the Yanson 4 claimed that AGNSA officials committed “serious illegal actions when they took part in the attack against the company with heavily armed PNP personnel August 8.”

AGNSA officials again committed grave coercion when they barred the two VTI board members, Celina and Emily, from entering the firm’s headquarters in Barangay Mansilingan, Bacolod City on August 13, the statement added.

The Yanson sisters are protesting the inter-office memorandum issued by Leo Rey permanently barring them and their cohorts from entering the VTI premises, the statement said.

A case of mandamus has been filed before the Regional Trial Court in Bacolod to compel Leo Rey and AGNSA to allow the siblings, all legitimate members of the board, entry and exit into the Mansilingan compound.

Another case for injunction was also filed against Leo Rey by the four before the courts yesterday to stop him from calling and conducting a Special Board Meeting on August 19, today.