Leo Rey Yanson tightens grip over PH’s largest bus firm but rival siblings fight on
(File photo) With the help of a security escort, Leo Rey Yanson (left) assists his mother Olivia out of the venue of the annual stockholders’ meeting of Bachelor Express Inc. in Barangay Bulua here on Sunday, Jan. 19, 2020. Yanson heads the Yanson Group of Bus Companies, the corporation that owns a number of subsidiaries, including Bachelor Express. (Photo by JIGGER J. JERUSALEM / Inquirer Mindanao)
MANILA, Philippines — Rival factions of the feuding Yanson clan — which owns the country’s largest bus transport company — held simultaneous but separate board meetings over the weekend, with each side seeking to assert their influence over the multibillion-peso Bacolod-based enterprise.
Control and physical possession of the Yanson Group of Bus Companies, however, remained firmly in the hands of the group led by youngest sibling Leo Rey Yanson who was reelected on Sunday as the chairman and president of subsidiary Bachelor Express Inc.
During that annual stockholders meeting, Leo Rey was reappointed chair and president of the company along with family matriarch Olivia V. Yanson as corporate secretary and treasurer.
During the meeting, Olivia Yanson, Leo Rey Yanson, Ginnette Dumancas, Charles Dumancas, Rey Ardo, Arvin John Villaruel, Anita Chua, Daniel Nicolas Golez, Hernan Omecillo, Danny Lorenton and Alfredo Ligo Jr. were reelected as members of the Bachelor Express board.
The Yanson Group is a family-controlled business that operates an estimated 4,000 buses through its seven subsidiaries. Bachelor Express is one of the three subsidiaries serving the island of Mindanao. The other two are Mindanao Bus Transport Inc. and Rural Transit Mindanao Inc.
Other subsidiaries include Vallacar Transit Inc., Ceres Transport Inc., Southern Star Bus Transport Inc. and Sugbo Transit Inc.
Despite “proper and timely notice,” stockholders from the “Yanson Four” rival camp — Roy Yanson, Ricardo Yanson Jr., Emily Yanson and Ma. Lourdes Celina Yanson-Lopez were absent.
The company said there are outstanding warrants for the four estranged Yanson siblings for alleged carnapping, grave coercion, perjury and falsification of documents issued by Bacolod City courts.
Meanwhile, the Yanson Four also held the annual meeting of Mindanao Star Bus Transport Inc. in Cagayan de Oro City presided by Carlo Joaquin Narvasa as proxy for Ricardo Yanson Jr, who is his faction’s president and chairman of the company board.
“It was attended by stockholders representing 99.99 percent of the outstanding capital stock of the corporation,” a statement issued by the camp said.
Roy Yanson, Emily Yanson and Ricardo Jr. were elected by the shareholders as members of the board of directors for the year 2021-2022.
The stockholders ratified all acts and transactions of the board of directors and management of the corporation under the leadership of Ricardo Jr.
In the organizational meeting that followed, the directors elected Ricardo Jr. as chair of the board and president, Roy Yanson as vice president for operations, Emily Yanson as treasurer and CFO, Ma. Lourdes Celina Lopez as corporate secretary, Anna Isabella Galvez as assistant corporate secretary, and Carlo Joaquin Narvasa as vice president for legal affairs.
“The new directors of the company also vowed to continue court actions to unravel minority shareholders’ activities and their pretense to act on behalf of the company despite the absence of any legal basis for them to do so,” the company said.
