The Bacolod City Prosecutor’s Office has reportedly dismissed the frustrated murder and serious physical injury charges filed by an employee of Vallacar Transit Incorporated (VTI), parent company of the Ceres bus line, against Roy, Ricardo, Jr., and Emily Yanson, along with Celina Yanson-Lopez—often referred to as the ‘Yanson 4.’

According to a resolution dated September 19, the dismissal found the accused perpetrators were not positively identified and the submitted evidence failed to establish the theory of conspiracy and/or evident premeditation.
The decision noted: “After finding no reasonable ground to continue with the investigation in view of the reasons already cited and due to the insufficiency of evidence submitted by the complainant which, standing alone, failed to establish probable cause to indict the respondents in this case.”
Earlier, Atty. Raul Bitoon, spokesperson for the Yanson siblings, said his clients called the charges “baseless and totally fabricated.”
Bitoon went on to explain, “For serious charges, such as the ones supposedly filed against the ‘Yanson 4,’’ to hurdle the rigors of scrutiny by the Office of the City Prosecutor, they should be based on clear and credible evidence as to amount to the existence of probable cause and should not be anchored solely on presumptions, surmises, and conjectures.
Cirilo Alingasa, the complainant, filed the charges after reportedly being injured after the group’s supporters threw a bottle of paint thinner at him. He claimed, as assisting police opened the steel gate to the company’s headquarters in Bacolod City’s Barangay Mansilingan, the spilled paint thinner started a fire after making contact with sparks created by the blowtorch he was operating.
Alingasa said that he incurred severe burns to his right hand and believes the incident was an “intent to kill.” He insisted the supporters were acting on orders from the ‘Yanson 4.’
The charges were filed last month before the Bacolod City Prosecutor’s Office./DGB, WDJ