By Modesto P. Sa-onoy
There are many disturbing claims in The Sleeping Truth that have not been answered or refuted. I also have been inviting the presumptive officials and management of VTI for a response, denial or whatever in writing. But they choose to remain silent. Why? One reason most probably is that they don’t want to bite the bait lest they get hooked. Nevertheless, the propaganda arm of the presumptive officials of VTI issue press releases with repeated lies about the legality of their occupancy of the company. Or repeating charges against the Y4 that had already been dismissed.
So we just prod on because, in human affairs, the truth will always prevail, many times late but prevail it does nevertheless. As the ancient truth consoles the victims, “the wheels of God’s justice grind slow but they grind exceedingly small.”
VTI had plenty of money that it could afford to purchase in cash, so why buy on credit? Three presumptive officials of VTI have their personal wealth that can total billions. And there are the non-Yansons who had been “elected” members of the board although they are not stockholders (where, for instance, did they get their shares?) and they are getting large amounts of allowances.
So, why take out the few millions from the thousands of workers who are trying to make things meet under a situation of under-employment? Is this fair? Where is justice of “each according to his capability”?
But I guess, fairness or justice is alien to the present VTI officialdom because if there was, the present feud and illegalities would be just a bad dream and memory to be expunged to re-establish the harmony, if there was, when Ricardo B. Yanson was alive.
When the founder, Ricardo died in 2015, the company he founded was in the best of health, preeminent in the Philippine land transportation business with plans to extend its services beyond the Philippine shores. It was that big, and its financial stability was the envy of many.
I recall a brief talk with a friend who was close to Ricardo and I asked him about the constant upgrading of the Ceres buses and this friend told me that VTI had them cheaper because the company was assembling its own buses and buying in bulk all the things it needed. Even if the company bought new buses after his demise, VTI was generating millions daily. Those were normal times. The company had plenty of money that it could afford to purchase in cash. Why is it now deep in debt? Later we shall seek the answer.
But it seems that all these moves about the financial difficulties of VTI is not all about money but to bury the memory and legacy of that great entrepreneur who is now the object of a devious plan. That can be done by bankrupting and destroying VTI and replacing it with a new one to complete the process and dump Ricardo, VTI and the bus line Ceres Liner’s name into the Lethean River of forgetfulness.
Three years after his death, the Yanson family is in turmoil and as I had written here lengthily, two months after Ricardo passed away, millions of company funds were taken out unreported and unaccounted. That “disappearance” of a claimed P380 million burst open into the public square and all hell broke loose.
Remember that Leo Rey accused his sister Celina of an unliquidated P380 million but as I wrote then that was a tactic of transference – blame others for one’s faults.
But documents cannot be denied and I got a thick copy of the SGV special audit report and there in black and white are the massive withdrawals in the millions under the watch of and by Leo Rey. That report has not been impugned by Leo Rey and company. Instead, Leo Rey, his mother Olivia and their cohorts diverted public attention to the four siblings. To make the diversion more effective, they used the power of the police to forcibly take over the company.
Assisted by a stable of lawyers, they had several criminal charges filed against the four that I think is just a tactic to buy time.
Continued tomorrow.
