By Modesto P. Sa-onoy
I was out of the country when the Yanson family feud was brewing. The topic was the “missing” PHP380-million. When a friend told me that his siblings were accusing Leo Rey of withdrawing millions and not reporting them as he should, I sort of defended him saying that he probably spent the money for the company’s non-earning projects. I cited the sponsorship of Ceres-Negros football team that gained favourable publicity for the company. Indeed sponsorship of sports carrying the company name is common among multinational companies. One feature of this kind of sponsorship is wavier the usual audit.
When later I analysed the documents on the reported millions that were taken from the coffers of Vallacar Transit, I found there was no mention of this sports. The list of supposed “expenses” turned out to be for unknown personalities, here and abroad and children as far as Africa. I wondered why there was no reporting when there were diversion of funds to ghost accounts.
I wondered as well why Leo Rey, the president could not have known of these withdrawals or the board for that matter. The only explanation I could think of is complete trust on Leo Rey. As I studied the SGV special audit the truth started to come out – the mechanics for the diversion of funds was installed by Leo Rey and the cohorts identified with special connections with Olivia. In a word, it was planned and the plot put into motion less than two months after deceased Ricardo was laid to rest.
And the rest of the children did not suspect anything until the surreptitious withdrawals of funds could no longer be kept hidden. But even then we thought that diversion was to enrich some close associates of Olivia and now we know, of Leo Rey. I will deal with the latter later on.
Clearly the bleeding of VTI had begun since then and continued during the years although the diverted millions had already been exposed. To whose account the money went is yet to be conclusively determined.
About the middle of last year I got a list of Miscellaneous Expenses of Leo Rey. From January to December 2016 he received a total of PHP197-million. For the same period in 2017, the total was PHP153-million. For the January to December 2018, his expenses reached PHP306-million and only from January to May 2019, the total was PHP150-million. That amount in all reached PHP806-million.
His average Miscellaneous Expenses in 2019 was PHP30-million a month thus we can consider that his 2019 receipt was PHP360-million making his total take of these years to PHP1.166-billion. That is for miscellaneous expenditures only, not counting allowances and salaries and expenses that go with his office.
On the other hand, the “personal expenses” of Olivia Yanson was as follows: January to December 2016 reached PHP83-million; for the entire 2017 year, it was PHP129-million; from January to December 2018, PHP383-million; from January to May 2019, the sum of PHP401-million or PHP80-million per month. If it were to end December 2019 it could have reached PHP960-million. Her take totals to PHP1.55-billion.
If anyone would like to rebut these figures, they are most welcome to present their own accounting and we can confront the source, otherwise these figures stand credible.
I have no information whether Ginnette Dumancas also had taken funds from VTI under any account. Was she excluded in the plan considering the reported unfriendly relations between here and Leo Rey? We cannot surmise because she remains part of the company controlled by Leo Rey and Olivia.
Leo Rey and Olivia thus received a total of PHP2.716-billion from 2016 to 2019. Note that Ricardo B. Yanson died on October 28, 2015 and I wrote that in December that year Leo Rey already drew millions from the VTI coffers as the SGV audit showed. It seems therefore that the diversion of funds to the personal control of Leo Rey had started just after the late Ricardo had been lain to rest. Control was entirely on Leo Rey’s hands.
Where did all these astronomical withdrawals go?
Continued tomorrow.
