Recently-installed company president calls for unity
By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

Olivia Yanson, matriarch of the Yanson clan that runs Vallacar Transit Inc. (VTI), parent company of the Ceres Bus Liner, yesterday penned an open letter calling on her children to end their attempts at taking over bus terminals.
“The past weeks have been difficult for me in my old age—I was supposed to be resting and relaxing—instead, you took control of our head office [in] Mansilingan and made yourselves the new officers of the company,” she stated. “You talked about preserving your father’s legacy—this is not what your father and I wanted.”
She also discussed former VTI President Leo Rey Yanson, who was ousted as president by his older brother, Roy Yanson, and credited him for the company’s development.
“We installed Leo Rey for a reason,” the family matriarch affirmed. “For the past decade, I have seen that your father and I made the right decision, our company has never been better.”
“Every year, we keep breaking the previous year’s performance [and] it’s all because of Leo Rey,” she added.
Yanson said her children’s actions are disrupting company operations and putting their employees at risk.
“Whatever the outcome of all our cases, you are still comfortably well off,” she pointed out. “It is our 18,000 employees who are the losing party here; employees who constantly worry about their jobs as a consequence of obeying one party and disobeying the other.”
“If you can still find love and respect within yourselves for me, I simply ask that you stop your attempts [at] taking over the terminals, branches, and head office.” the matriarch added. “If you will not listen to me because your hearts are already cold, listen to your 18,000 employees; the very same people who toil day and night to make us what we are now—they deserve that.”
Meanwhile, the company president also released a statement, where he called for unity between the new administration and employees.
While VTI chief financial officer Celina Yanson-Lopez earlier accused the former company president of unlawful withdrawals amounting to “millions of pesos,” the recently-installed company president claimed his younger brother had plans of breaking up the company, which he opposed.
“Let me assure everyone: I will not agree to the suggestion [by] our younger brother, Leo Rey, to just break up this company, which my dad built from scratch and leave its fate on a toss coin between us,” he stressed. “Leo Rey wanted to divide dad’s company.”
“Leo Rey probably thinks this is a popularity contest where the winner is the most popular and deserves a share of the empire,” the company president added. “This explains why he, together with several others, continue trying to disrupt operations by coercing our employees to support a fake strike and preventing our security agency from doing their jobs.”
Yanson went on to assure a commitment to continue building the company.
“Let us not break our company,” he appealed. I, together with our board, our new management, and these 18,000-strong employees will remain committed to bring growth to this company.”
Yanson added, “As they say, united we stand, divided we fall.”/DGB, WDJ