By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga
The Office of the Regional Prosecutor has upheld the resolution of the City Prosecutor of Dumaguete City to dismiss in its entirety the complaint of trespassing filed by Olivia Yanson against her children Roy, Ricardo Jr., Ma. Lourdes Celina Yanson-Lopez, and Emily Yanson – also known as the “Yanson 4.”
Atty. Carlo Joaquin Narvasa, one of the lawyers representing the Yanson 4, said in its November 29, 2019 resolution, the City Prosecutor of Dumaguete City found that because the Yanson 4 are Olivia’s children and the property which were entered into is registered in her name and her late husband Ricardo Yanson Sr., vested upon the Yanson 4 hereditary and co-ownership rights over the property.
“It is also found that Olivia had no personal knowledge of the incident she complained of,” Narvasa said.
The Office of the Regional Prosecutor held that there was no reason to reverse the findings of the City Prosecutor of Dumaguete City, and noted that the purpose of the preliminary investigation is to secure the innocent against hasty, malicious and oppressive prosecution.
The regional prosecutor also ruled that despite the property’s ownership to Olivia, it was being used by Vallacar Transit Incorporated (VTI) of which the Yanson 4 are directors and officers.
“Due to this, as well as the pending intra-corporate case in Bacolod City, it cannot rule on the Yanson 4 or their representatives being stripped of their authority to enter it,” Narvasa pointed out.
Meanwhile, as for the charges that the Yanson 4 should be held liable for the change of security personnel in the property, the regional prosecutor averred that such “issue involved administrative and managerial protocols which this Office has no basis to tackle without any evidence or legal basis to begin with.”
Narvasa added they hail the recognition of the Office of the Regional Prosecutor that the intra-corporate case in Bacolod City would be determinative of the management and control of VTI, and in conjunction with it, the propriety of filing criminal cases on its behalf against his clients.
The Yanson 4 and their mother Olivia had been locked in a legal battle over the ownership of the VTI, although the family seemed to have put their differences aside recently after the Yanson matriarch fell sick with Covid-19, for which she managed to recover after spending 10 days in a hospital in Metro Manila./DGB, WDJ