By Modesto P. Sa-onoy
We believe that the plan to takeover VTI and establish a new transport company to replace VTI must have been hatched right after the death of Ricardo B. Yanson beginning with the massive diversion of VTI funds in December 2015, within two months of his death on October 25, that year. Let’s take a brief step back in time to synthesize and concretize the facts for easier understanding of factors that can scuttle the Y3 plan.
I initially considered the officials of the VTI Manila Purchasing Office management to be the culprit for personal gain. But even then I was suspicious that Leo Rey and Olivia could be involved because of the report of the special audit of SGV. The facts of this audit were reported extensively in the local press – radio and print. It was public knowledge. Despite this unfavourable report, Leo Rey did not dispute or explain the SGV findings.
Why did Leo Rey keep silent? I think he should have because the management of the company was under his direct control and the procedure that was followed by the MPO was approved by him or at the least, known to him. He owed his family, his board of directors an explanation but he did not. In fact he owed the public an explanation as well because the damaging report cast an unfavourable image of his company, his management and his person.
This is the first flaw of his plan – the swiftness of the diversion of fund and their whereabouts. That placed Leo Rey under suspicion of why he shifted funds from the company when he does not need to because he was in control.
Due to the unaccounted millions, the Y4 were alerted, though I think at the time not about a plan of obliterating the RBY legacy but merely about lack of proper financial management. Though not clear at the time, the plot started to move.
When the SGV report was submitted, the Y4 moved fast to stop the bleeding of the company and replaced Leo Rey from the VTI presidency. This forced the hand of Olivia to come to his aid.
I had initially suspected that Olivia’s entry into the dissonance among her children was her defense of the manager of the MPO who was involved in the unaccounted millions. I thought at the time that she was defending the MPO manager against her own children although the manager, by the SGV report is at the least culpable for negligence and command responsibility. The SGV report however identified direct responsibility and involvement of the manager of missing millions of company funds. The press at the time made good guesses about Olivia’s motivations related to her close relationship not only of this manager, Rey Repollo but his family as well.
Were favoured employees used as part of the mechanism for the diversion of company funds and thus shift responsibility?
The latest information I got was the case of another employee. Is he also being used in the same manner that Repollo had become the media punching bag and scapegoat in the MPO fiasco to divert attention from Leo Rey?
A Facebook article of The Sleeping Truth of March 6, 2020 carried an article claiming in its title that “HBO will lead the YGBC downfall”. YGBC is the acronym for Yanson Group of Bus Companies. The reference therefore is not limited to the Vallacar Transit Inc. but to all other bus companies owned by the Yanson family.
Note the date of the publication – almost a year ago and the allegations in this article had not been denied or disputed despite the wide reach of The Sleeping Truth not only in the different companies of the Yansons but among the general public.
The title caught my attention because of the initial “HBO”. What has the television show got to do with the Yanson family feud? What are the connections? After reading the entire article I was first unable to connect the dots until other “small details” came in and opened an answer to the question: Could Leo Rey and Ginnette be doing it alone?
Let’s see on March 1.
