The Bacolod City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 44 has approved the petition of Olivia Villaflores Yanson, the matriarch of the Yanson Group of Bus Companies, for probate of her last will and testament.
In Special Proclamation No. 19-2771 dated August 31, RTC Branch 44 Presiding Judge Ana Celeste Bernad said “the last will and testament of Olivia Villaflores Yanson is allowed probate as it complied with the formalities required by law.”
In her will and testament, Olivia named her children Leo Rey and Ginnette as the universal heirs.
Olivia’s four other children — Roy, Ricardo Jr., Ma. Lourdes Celina, and Emily, collectively known as the Yanson 4 — opposed the probate, stating their mother was under due and improper influence and pressure from Leo Rey and Ginnette.
Bernad said the oppositors to the probate process had not presented any evidence to the court that there was undue influence or pressure exerted on the petitioner.
Yanson filed a petition for probate of her last will and testament on April 15, 2019, docketed as Special Proceedings No. 19-2771.
In considering the petition, Bernad said RTC Branch 44 had kept the pronouncements of the Supreme Court (SC) in mind and only looked at the issue of the extrinsic validity of Olivia’s last will and testament.
“The court must determine in a probate proceeding is the due execution or the extrinsic validity of the will as provided in Section 1, Rule 75 of the Rules of Court,” the SC said in a ruling in 2020.
The probate court could not inquire into the will’s intrinsic validity or the disposition of the estate.
The due execution is “whether the testator, being sound of mind, freely executed the will in accordance with the formalities prescribed by law.”
Olivia proved to the court that it was her personal decision to make a last will and testament, and asked her lawyers to prepare a draft containing all the provisions, the court said.
She also proved that she was in full possession of all her reasoning faculties or her mind was unbroken, unimpaired or unshattered by disease, injury or other cause at that time.
Olivia knew the nature and extent of her estate and clearly understood the importance and consequences of a last will and testament.
She signed the will in the presence of four subscribing witnesses and it was acknowledged before the public notary.
She was 85 years old when she made her last will and testament.
Olivia and her late husband, Ricardo Yanson Sr., established Vallacar Transit Inc. in 1968, which eventually became the largest bus company in the Philippines.