BACOLOD CITY, Negros Occidental, Philippines – The battle for bus companies under the transport empire left behind by billionaire Ricardo Yanson Sr. resumed on its second straight year and has shifted from mainstream and social media to the boardrooms.
The Y3 faction – led by the matriarch, Olivia with youngest son Leo Rey and Ginnette – announced its first victory early this month, 4 January, claiming that Leo Rey and Olivia were respectively re-appointed as president and chairman of the board, and corporate secretary and treasurer of Ceres Liner Travel and Tours, Inc.
It also announced that Ginnette, her husband, Charles, Anita G. Chua, Arvin John V. Villaruel and Daniel Nicolas Golez were re-elected as members of CLTTI’s board of directors.
Over the weekend, 16 January, the group also claimed that Leo Rey, Olivia and Ginnette, Rey C. Ardo and Arvin John Villaruel were re-elected to the board during the annual stockholders meeting of the Mindanao Star Bus Transport Inc.
It added the board re-appointed during a meeting also on that day Leo Rey and Olivia as president and chairman of the board and corporate treasurer and secretary, respectively.
The Yanson 4, however, which the Y3 called as “fugitives from justice” who have gone into hiding abroad, also claimed yesterday that Ricardo “Ricky” V. Yanson Jr. was elected as chairman of the board of directors of the Mindanao Star Bus Transport Inc.
The Y4 – composed of eldest son Roy, Ricardo Jr., Ma. Lourdes Celina Y. Lopez, and Emily – issued yesterday afternoon a news release with details of the meeting that, it claimed, was held at Seda Centrio Hotel in Cagayan De Oro City on 16 January.
Lawyer Raul Bito-on, spokesperson for the Y4, told DNX in a separate interview that those who attended the meeting of MSBTI were shareholders of “99.99 percent” of the total shares of stocks, which makes the meeting called for by Leo Rey “a sham” as he does not have the authority to call for the annual meeting of stockholders.
Asked why their news release included details about the specific venue and the presiding officer, Bito-on said this only highlights that the Y4 is “…more factual than them,” referring to the Y3.
The news release added lawyer Carlo Joaquin T. Narvasa presided over the meeting as proxy for Ricardo V. Yanson Jr., the company’s president and chairman of the board.
“(The meeting) was attended by stockholders representing 99.99% of the outstanding capital stock of the corporation,” the Y4 release added.
The shareholders elected Roy, Emily, and Ricardo Jr. as members of the board of directors for the year 2021-2022 after which the board elected” Ricardo V. Yanson, Jr. as Chairman of the Board of Directors and President, Roy V. Yanson as Vice-President for Operations, Emily V. Yanson as Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer, Ma. Lourdes Celina Y. Lopez as Corporate Secretary, Anna Isabella C. Galvez as Assistant Corporate Secretary, and Carlo Joaquin T. Narvasa as Vice-President for Legal,” the Y4 release also said.
The following is an excerpt from. The Y4 release:
“The stockholders ratified all acts and transactions of the Board of Directors and management of the corporation under the leadership of its President Ricardo V. Yanson, Jr.
In the organizational meeting that followed, the directors elected.
The new directors of the company also vowed to continue court actions to unravel minority shareholders’ activities and their pretense to act on behalf of the company despite the absence of any legal basis for them to do so.”