By Modesto P. Sa-onoy
The involvement of frontline managers in the larcenous milking of VTI will lead to its insolvency and pave the way for their Love Visayas Transport Express. Indeed the reported pilferage of bus parts and even of an entire bus from the company compound can only be done with authority from the top. Does this not constitute a crime even if sanctioned by the top executives?
So now we know why Leo Rey and his cohorts have turned their eyes to prematurely collect the money advanced to help the workers in order to “save” the company. The unexpected had thrown a monkey wrench on their plans that could have been kept secret or at least could have fooled the public.
The VTI buses in normal times were raking millions every day and this income could have been sufficient to pay the Chinese bus manufacturers and kept the pilferage in the VTI compounds less obvious.
The pandemic suddenly halted all bus operations and dried up the company coffers and at the same time forced the company to dig into its pocket the money needed to keep the workers paid even with a pittance. It was all expenses without income for months from March 2020. When public transport was allowed to operate income was extremely limited to sustain the demands of a large company.
Compounding the situation is the huge payment to the Chinese, the stoppage of the efforts to secure the authority for Love Visayas Transport Express to operate, and the agitation among the workers. In more than one sense, VTI can no longer sustain the lifestyles of the years past and so the bleeding of the company as the reports show had to be accelerated.
These are a few factors that are scuttling the plot to eliminate VTI at this stage. The company had to operate even with the bare minimum allowed otherwise it would really go kaput and the Chinese would not be paid.
We have to add the increased operation of smaller bus companies that are now able to compete with the Ceres buses.
Of course Leo Rey, Ginnette and Olivia have more assets than we can think of but I don’t think they would sell any of these to satisfy the Chinese and publicly admit that indeed their money maker is losing money or at best gives them less than projected when this plan was hatched.
The lynchpin of this plan to obliterate the legacy of Ricardo B. Yanson is Olivia. As long as she is alive and until the cases she filed to nullify the extra-judicial agreement in the partition of their property that left her without a single share in the VTI and that of the case to disinherit her four children – Roy, Emily, Celina and Ricardo Jr. are decided in her favour, so long will the claims of Olivia, Ginnette and Leo Rey be without merit.
They must admit the infirmity of the human body. Olivia is no longer a “spring chicken” and the restrictions on her freedom of movement must have affected her active social life that gives vibrancy to every one especially the seniors who are no longer active in fieldwork.
Sadly, under the present situation I can imagine her still carrying the heavy burden of anger, a state that saps people of a sense of peace and comfort that no physical things can replace.
Anger and hatred can devastate a person. Maya Angelou, an American poet rightly said, “Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.” Worse when one knows that deliverance is far off.
Time is not on the side of Olivia. Every minute she loses in terms of the unstoppable ticking of the clock. We learned she has close friends within the judiciary, catering to her, but they do not stay on the bench forever. The cases she relies on to use against her children can take years to resolve not only because the wheels of Philippine justice grind so slowly but also because of the time-consuming appeals and counter appeals. The well-paid lawyers will see to that.
O lente, lente currite, noctis equi!
