By: Dolly Yasa
BACOLOD City – Yanson Group of Bus Companies President Leo Rey Yanson is asking his siblings not to use bogus social media accounts allegedly being used by his siblings to further sow confusion and peddle lies and half-truths.
He claimed that these bogus social media accounts and trolls served as mouthpiece of his four siblings – Roy, Emily, Celina and Ricky – to lambast him, his sister Ginnette and their mother Olivia.
“I understand if you lambast me or my sister Ginette but not our only mother who sacrificed her whole life to bring us where we are right now,” Leo Rey said in a statement sent to media outfits here.
He added that “If they have no malice, why do they have to hide behind their bogus Facebook account.”
The social media controversy concerning trolls is also an offshoot of the ongoing squabble within the Yanson clan after Roy, Emily, Celina and Ricky (collectively known as Yanson 4) ousted Leo Rey as president and CEO of their family-owned multi-billion peso bus company in July 2019.
The Yanson 4 also wrest control of the Vallacar Transit Head Office and the Southbound terminal.
However, Leo Rey, with sister Ginnette and their mother Olivia, regained control of the VTI head Office and the Southbound Terminal in August and also reorganized their board after a stockholders meeting.
After the meeting, Leo Rey was retained as President and CEO, while Celina and Emily were stripped of their position as Finance Officer and Corporate Secretary, respectively, and were replaced by Ginette and Olivia.
Leo Rey also said that “they are cowards who could not even face the truth because they are hiding under the skirts of their social media warriors, who are posting nothing but non-issues and lies.”
He accused his siblings of acting as defenders of workers’ right after a social media account posted reports of unpaid workers at his farm.
“They want the public to believe that they are coming with clean hands. Stop twisting the truth. stop playing like you are victims and championing the workers’ cause because this is exactly what you were doing when you illegally took possession of the Mansilingan headquarter last July 07, 2019,” he further said.
Leo Rey said that his siblings abused their authority by terminating Vice-Presidents and removing employees or transferring their work stations from VTI Mansilingan to Kabankalan Terminal, where there is no admin office, in less than a day’s notice.
“Such action was done by someone who has no heart for a female employee just because she doesn’t like her,” he said.
He said his sister cannot deny this fact because her unfair moves were contained in official memoranda of which the VTI and the affected employees provided copies to him.
Leo Rey further said that as long as the employees perform, “rest assured that regardless of their alliance their jobs will always be secured.”
“In fact, right after I recovered the head office in Mansilingan and south terminal I called a meeting to all employees and told them that they should not worry as long as they perform what is expected of them and that their loyalty should not belong to me or to the rebel 4 but to mommy Love and mommy Love alone.”