By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

Olivia Yanson, matriarch of the family that operates Vallacar Transit Inc. (VTI), parent company of the Ceres Bus Liner, slammed VTI chief financial officer Celina Yanson-Lopez anew after the P380 million in alleged losses she accused the CFO of not accounting for was confirmed by, as she called it, “one of the largest and respected audit firms.”
Yanson-Lopez earlier responded to the reported losses by pointing to Leo Rey Yanson, who was earlier ousted as company president by his brother Roy Yanson, accusing the former president of making unlawful withdrawals amounting to “millions of pesos.”
“It’s clearly a diversionary tactic,” the elder Yanson stated. “[Yanson-Lopez] has P380 million to answer for as confirmed by one of the largest and respected audit firms in the country.”
“I just hope she would be able to account for that amount,” she added.
The family matriarch said, between 2017 and 2019, Yanson-Lopez and the company’s treasury division still needed to liquidate a separate P146.14 million in funds generated by income accumulated from operations in Luzon, Mindanao, and Panay. She noted, the figure now puts the unliquidated amount in excess of P500 million and called it “tantamount to defrauding or a serious attempt to defraud the corporation.”
Meanwhile, the former company president released a separate statement dismissing the unlawful withdrawal claims.
“Please tell the truth,” he urged. “Don’t use diversionary tactics to hide the much bigger financial mess that you put yourself in and may cause far-reaching damage to the company that our parents had worked on tirelessly.”
Leo Rey Yanson also specifically addressed the allegations.
“The withdrawal was not an imprudent action,” he affirmed, calling the amount in question, P11.8 million, as the amount the company was earning when he initially took over the business.
“Under my watch, our company has grown to an exponential 300 percent by conservative estimates,” the former company president added. “All businesses have risks and, while you sit down in your office counting our hard-earned income, I, on the other hand, motivated employees, moved resources and exerted all possible efforts to beat last year’s performance, took constant risks in my decision-making [and], thus, absorbed all the blame in running the day-to-day operations.”
Company insiders claim the alleged withdrawals funded employee incentives and raffle prizes during a company assembly.
A company executive, who requested anonymity, said, “Whatever [Leo Rey Yanson] withdraws, it always goes to a noble purpose.”
“He has a big heart for the rank-and-file and even for company officers, like his parents,” they added./DGB, WDJ