Olivia Yanson: He visited to invite me to a wedding
By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

Olivia Yanson, matriarch of the Yanson clan that operates Vallacar Transit Inc. (VTI), parent company of the Ceres bus liner, refuted claims made by her son, Roy Yanson, regarding reconciliation.
Last month, Yanson said he had visited his mother at her home, where they spoke for two hours. However, she noted, “In our two-hour discussion when he visited me in the house, he never mentioned he was there to say sorry about all of this or he will gather all his siblings to start the reconciliation process.”
“The reason for the said meeting was to invite and convince me to attend the wedding of his daughter Casey in Bohol,” the family matriarch added.
While the mother acknowledged her son’s call to stop issuing public statements and instead discuss family issues privately, she noted, “They had a press conference and had been issuing press statements for public sympathy.”
“How can we reconcile if, even before we meet, he has already set conditions that they will not return my shares or give me voting rights?” the matriarch asked.
During an earlier press conference, Roy Yanson explained their mother made demands for her shares to be returned to her, along with the right to three votes in the company.
He noted, if she were to be given back her shares, they believe she would hand them over to their other siblings, VTI President Leo Rey Yanson and Ginette Yanson-Dumancas, which they are against.
Yanson also called it “not acceptable” for his mother to be provided three votes when, as a corporate matter, each shareholder is entitled to one vote.
“She wants to have three because we are four, which is the majority, and they are only three [on] their side,” he explained. “If she will be given three voting rights, they will outnumber us.”
Olivia Yanson also went after VTI chief financial officer Celina Yanson-Lopez, who has been asked to account for P380 million in missing funds, but recently came out and claimed her mother had covered for the real culprit.
The elder Yanson stated, “[On] several occasions the internal auditor wanted to audit her on the missing funds but she did not cooperate.”
“If you were not hiding anything why not cooperate?” she asked.
“Treasury is under your watch and these anomalies could not have happened, or could have been minimized, if you are really doing your job,” Yanson added. “You should have heed my advice then, to take a leave and let me look at why the funds are missing.”
However, Yanson-Lopez provided a different perspective on the matter last week.
“My mother got mad at me, together with the three of us—Ricky, Roy, and Emily—because  we wanted the guy responsible for these illicit withdrawals from the Manila Purchasing Office (MPO) to be criminally charged and sent to jail,” she explained. “When we discovered that this person was the one who orchestrated this big mess in cahoots with another, a lady cashier, the board wanted their heads.”
“My mother intervened and, out of pity, even wanted to pay for those funds which this guy allegedly took,” the CFO added.
She noted, the suspect had reportedly served the company for over two decades and her mother “covered for his misdeeds.”/DGB, WDJ