Yanson matriarch asks 4 children to ‘stop lying’

Roy Yanson (left) and Leo Rey Yanson. CONTRIBUTED

BACOLOD CITY—“I beg you to stop lying.”

This was the appeal of the matriarch of the feuding Yanson clan to her four children who rebelled against her over control of their company.

Olivia Yanson, the co-founder of Vallacar Transit Inc. (VTI), maintained that she and her son Leo Rey are not selling the biggest bus firm in the country contrary to what her four other children—Roy, Emily, Celina and Ricardo Jr. (Yanson 4)—believed.

“Why kill the goose that lays the golden eggs?” she asked.

Olivia advised her four children to avoid friends who are only thinking of their selfish interests.

“You have the money. Take some rest and relax. Contemplate and pray harder. All you have to do is to be with honest friends,” she said.

“You have benefitted tremendously from his (Leo Rey) hard work and dedication. His indefatigable efforts made you jet setters. But with your material success, however, you, unfortunately, have no culture,” Olivia added.

Olivia and her son Leo Rey regained control of the VTI headquarters in Barangay Mansilingan with the help of the police last Friday.

The Yanson 4 had ousted Leo Rey as president of their firm and replaced him with Roy. However, Leo Rey said his ouster was illegal and the siblings are now locked in an intra-corporate legal battle.

Leo Rey’s lawyer Norman Golez said official receipts and certificates of registration of about 3,000 buses belonging to the Yanson Group of Bus Companies and 800 land titles were stolen from the headquarters in Barangay Mansilingan.

Files, laptops and even personal belongings of employees were also allegedly missing from the legal and operations offices of the headquarters that were found in disarray when the camp of Leo Rey entered the headquarters Friday.

Asked if cases would be filed, Golez said, “As much as we want a peaceful solution to all this, some sort of justice needs to be done. How can you have peace without justice?”

Emily, in an earlier statement, said Leo Rey was bent on selling VTI to the highest bidder, which explains the use of brute force to occupy all terminals, and even their corporate headquarters in Mansilingan compound in Bacolod City.

But Golez said Emily was now resorting to falsehoods to gain public sympathy.

“It is public knowledge that VTI became what is known today through Olivia and her husband’s, Ricardo B. Yanson, hard work, sacrifice, and commitment. The success of VTI is both Olivia and her husband’s legacy that no amount of money can ever buy,” the lawyer said.

Olivia said had her husband been alive, he would not have allowed what was going on with their company to happen.

“You keep on invoking your father’s legacy for every misdeed you had committed. What kind of legacy are you talking about? Do you think your father will agree or condone your illegal acts?” Olivia said.

“Your father was an honorable man. His standing and reputation in the community precede his good name. And if he were around today, he wouldn’t allow anything that will tarnish his image or that of his family,” she added. /lzb