By: Dolly Yasa
BACOLOD City – The camp of Roy, Emily, Celina, and Ricardo Yanson Jr., collectively known as the “Yanson 4,” filed a new case against the group of Vallacar Transit Incorporated (VTI) President Leo Rey Yanson to invalidate the stockholders’ meeting he called earlier this month.
During the stockholders meeting held every 1st week of December, both camps elected their presidents – Celina Yanson-Lopez for the “Yanson 4” while Leo Rey was also re-elected by their bloc.
In a statement , lawyer Raul Bito-on, spokesperson of “Yanson 4,” said the meeting held by Leo Rey Yanson had no quorum as the majority shareholders of VTI was represented by his clients who control 61.17 percent of the company.
Documents from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in Bacolod also disclosed that as of December 6, only 2.068 million VTI shares had been issued, of which the Yanson 4 cumulatively owns the majority.
Bito-on said the meeting called by Leo Ray and Ginette Yanson-Dumangcas was illicit on the following grounds:
-the issuance of shares were never authorized for acquisition;
-it violated the By-Laws of VTI and the corporation code for not complying with the rights of existing shareholders to buy unissued shares first; and
-no taxes on those transfers were paid to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) or subject for registration in the company’s books.”
Meanwhile, the Yanson 4’s meeting complied with all requirements of the company’s by-laws and complied with voting requirements under the Revised Corporation Code.
During the meeting, Roy invited the SEC-Bacolod director and her staff as observers, wherein Celina was formally elected as VTI’s new president.
The presence of SEC officials also showed the best way of showing transparency and compliance with the company’s by-laws.
“The press statements issued by Leo Rey and Ginette the day after the news spread about the SEC’s attendance at their meeting only proves they failed to make sure their meeting was transparent and legitimate,” Bito-on pointed out.
SEC-Bacolod, meanwhile, clarified that their role in attending the majority stakeholders’ meeting and that they were not favoring or passing judgement on that meeting.
It added that its officials were invited to attend and they did so in keeping with their functions as regulators.
VTI is the largest subsidiary of the Yanson Group of Bus Companies and is the company behind Ceres Liner and Sugbo Transit.
It has fifteen bases of operations in the cities of Bacolod, Iloilo, Dumaguete, Cebu, Cagayan De Oro, Butuan, Davao, Pagadian, Dipolog, Bohol and Batangas.