By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

Two members of the ‘Yanson 4’ filed complaints yesterday after they, along with around 300 employees, were barred entry from the Vallacar Transit Inc. (VTI) office in Bacolod City’s Barangay Mansilingan. Ma. Lourdes Celina Yanson-Lopez and Emily Yanson both personally issued their complaints before Police Station 7.
“We are the owners but we [were] not allowed to get inside,” Yanson-Lopez explained. “That’s why we are questioning it because it’s our property and, besides, I am also working inside.”
“I went to the office yesterday but the guards belonging to AGNA Security Agency did not allow me to go inside—I was supposed to report to work,” she added. “I work inside the compound [as] the corporate finance officer of VTI.”
Yanson-Lopez claimed the order to bar entry came from VTI President Leo Rey Yanson.
She pointed out, employees based at the company headquarters are those who work in the shop located inside the compound but pointed out those with orange IDs were allowed entry.
“They are working there so that’s why they were not able to change [their] IDs from the old ones to the orange ones, which [were] issued at the [Ceres Bus Liner North Terminal],” Yanson-Lopez noted.
Meanwhile, she said some employees were later allowed to enter the compound but they were required to surrender their mobile phones at the gate and sign into a logbook, with some “interrogated.”
In a follow-up press conference yesterday, Atty. Gerry Llena, one of the lawyers representing the company president, explained such instructions were issued for the safety of the employees who back their side of the conflict.
“Leo Rey has a deep concern for his employees,” he stated. “If those employees who cannot be controlled are allowed entry, their safety may also be compromised.”
“We have to sweep the entire area for physical control and it will require time,” the attorney added.
With regard to the orange IDs, Llena said they were issued for “control purposes” as a means to avoid escalating tensions./DGB, WDJ