HOMEWARD-BOUND. Passengers line up and wait for their turn to get in a public bus at the Bulua terminal ahead of the Holy Week. (PHOTO BY NITZ ARANCON)
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THE group of one of the Yanson brothers has threatened to press charges against Vallacar Transit Corp. union leaders who attempted to stage a strike on Sunday.

The company owns and operates the Ceres, Bachelor and Rural Transit bus lines in Visayas and Mindanao.

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Although based in Bacolod, the labor unrest resulting from a brewing legal battle among members of the Yanson family could cripple at least 80 percent of public bus transport in Mindanao, according to a Gold Star Daily report attributed to an official of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board in Region 10.

The group of Roy Yanson, who took over as president of Villacar, said the new leadership of the country’s biggest bus line is trying its best to normalize operations even as it warned saboteurs even as it warned that union leaders found to have orchestrated a failed strike face various criminal cases.

The management alleged that a union vice and board member tried to sabotage the firm’s Bacolod operations on Sunday afternoon.

Yanson called the actions illegal because the union leaders allegedly tried to prevent the buses from leaving a terminal in Bacolod.

The firm allayed fears about a possible disruption of its public conveyance services which could be a violation of the company’s franchises.

It said there is no known plan to stage a strike by the Mindanao Alliance of Land Transport and General Workers Union (Maltu) that has expressed support to the Leo Rey Yanson who was replaced by his brother Roy through a board decision.

In a press statement, Celina Yanson-Lopez, chief financial officer of Vallacar Transit, said the company discovered that several withdrawals amounting to millions of pesos were withdrawn without management approval when Leo Rey was the firm’s president.

Lopez said that as a company policy, an existing memorandum is being enforced overseeing the release of funds.

She said that under the memorandum, fund withdrawals require the approval of the board of directors, and the company policy was violated.

Lopez said the withdrawals, allegedly made from June 1 to June 17, this year, endangered the financial stability of the firm and were to the disadvantage of some 18,000 workers because the withdrawn funds were intended for the salary payments and their benefits.

She said the funds have yet to be accounted for.

The company’s board of directors decided to change Leo Rey with Roy who is now the president and head of operations with Lopez as treasurer and finance and management head, Emily Yanson as the corporate secretary and head of administration, Ricardo Yanson Jr. as vice president for maintenance, and lawyer Jose Jonathan Ealdama as vice president for legal affairs. (Bencyrus Ellorin, contributor)

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