A new Court of Appeals order has affirmed the arrest and hold departure order issued by a Bacolod City court against four of the Yanson siblings.
“This development stabilizes the management team headed by Leo Rey Yanson as president of Vallacar Transit Inc., and thereby ensuring the continuity of the transport company to serve the public”, Vallacar Transit said in a statement.
Vallacar Transit is rated the country’s largest. It operates transport firms Ceres Liner, the Rural Transit of Mindanao and Bachelor Express but its management is disputed by the heirs of its founder, Ricardo B. Yanson who died in 2015.
In a 21 June resolution, the 19th Division of the Court of Appeals in Cebu City affirmed the December 2022 Bacolod court order finding probable cause for qualified theft against the siblings Roy Yanson, Ricardo Yanson Jr., Ma. Lourdes Celina Yanson and Emily Yanson, also known as Yanson 4 siblings.
The Bacolod court order “was an exercise of her inherent power to amend and control the court’s processes and orders as to make them expeditious and still conformable to law,” the CA said.
The Yanson siblings have asked the CA to reconsider and and allow their supplemental motions challenging the arrest warrant and hold departure order issued against them by Bacolod City Regional Trial Court presiding Judge Ana Celeste Pinero Bernad in December last year.
The CA’s 19th Division chaired by associate justice Marilyn Lagura-Yap with concurrence by associate justices Jacinto G. Fajardo Jr. and Regelio G. Lagro, affirmed the local court order and denied the Yanson siblings’ motion for reconsideration.
According to the CA, the Bacolod court order “is a determination of probable cause for the issuance of warrant of arrest against petitioners, that is already an independent issuance that was not among the matters embraced by the petition”.
Court records show that in a special board meeting on 7 July 2019, the Yanson siblings removed Leo Rey Yanson as president of Vallacar Transit and replaced him with Roy, the siblings eldest.
Leo Rey then filed Commercial Case No. 19-118 questioning his removal and asked the court to nullify the board meeting and reinstate him as company president.
The Yanson siblings took over VTI’s head office from 7 July to 5 August 2019 with the help of security guards from AY 76 Security Specialists Inc. whom they hired to replace the guards of Armor Guard Negros Security Agency.
From 7 to 9 August 2019, Leo Rey and his supporters, including Hernan B. Omecillo and some personnel from the Philippine National Police, regained control of VTI premises, re-installed security guards and conducted an inventory of the main offices where it was discovered that several corporate properties—including furniture, equipment, documents and files—were missing.
Omecillo and other personnel executed affidavits for and in behalf of VTI and sought the help of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Negros Occidental in filing robbery and qualified theft charges against the Yanson siblings.
Police investigation found the properties were allegedly taken by the Yanson siblings to the compound of Ceres Premium Foods Corp., a company controlled by Emily Yanson.
A Bacolod City court, in an October 2021 decision, granted Olivia Yanson’s petition to oversee and administer the estate of her late husband Ricardo Yanson.
