THE Court of Appeals in Cebu has ordered four siblings of the Yanson clan to turnover documents and certificates of titles in their possession to the Bacolod City Regional Trial Court Branch 44 for legal custody.
The order, which issued on July 30 this year, is in relation to the Yanson family dispute over the management of their businesses, including the country’s largest bus company.
In its decision, the 20th division of the CA-Cebu station, through Associate Justice Bautista Corpin Jr., amended its November 28, 2023 decision and ordered four Yanson siblings – Roy, Ma. Lourdes Celina, Ricardo Jr. and Emily, also known as the “Yanson 4” – to surrender certificates of title and related documents they have previously admitted are in their possession.
The four are at odds with the family matriarch Olivia and their two other siblings, Leo Rey and Ginette, over the management of the family’s businesses.
The court’s amended decision grants the petition for certiorari filed by the management of the Vallacar TRansit Inc. (VTI) led by Leo Rey and Olivia.
“The court a quo is directed to identify the subject documents to be surrendered as indicated in the information and as identified by the prosecutor in Criminal Case No. 20-52097, and in the private respondents’ letter addressed to the Register of Deeds, and in their comment to the DOJ (Department of Justice), and (Criminal Case No.) 20-52097, and to receive these as evidence, place them under custodia legis, and adjudicate as to the list of these subject documents to be surrendered, in accordance with this Decision,” the amended decision, which was concurred with by Associate Justices Mercedita Dadole Ygnacio and Ma. Consejo Gengos-Ignalaga.
The court in this case is the Bacolod City Regional Trial Court Branch 44 under the sala of Presiding Judge Ana Celester Bernad.
Bernad had previously denied the urgent motion to order the four Yanson siblings to surrender the documents they seized from VTI in 2019.
The documents include original certificates of title of the properties of the Yanson Group of Bus Companies and those registered under the name of the Yanson family, as well as supporting documents such as tax declarations, vicinity maps, deeds of sale, memorandum of agreements, etc.
The RTC had also denied the motion for reconsideration on the case.
Court records show that on June 9, 2020, the acting Bacolod City prosecutor accused the Yanson 4 of the crime of qualified theft, which is penalized under Article 310 in relation to Article 308 of the Revised Penal Code.
The complaint alleged the four, representing themselves as the new officers of VTI, took various items, including important documents to which they had access by reason of their fiduciary capacity in the company.
At the same time, the CA denied the petitioners’ motion seeking to include in the surrender order other documents which are the subject of Criminal Case No.20-52098.
“While we found substantial evidence in support of petitioner’s allegations that the subject documents are in the possession of Respondents Yanson by the latter’s own admissions, the same cannot be said for the other items subject of the criminal case. Hence, petitioner’s Motion for Partial Reconsideration insisting on the inclusion of these other items must be denied,” the CA said.
“Ours was a grant of provisional relief so as to preserve the status quo until such time that the merits of the main case can be heard by the trial court. It is easily recognizable that the directive for Respondents Yanson to surrender the subject documents to the trial court is not equivalent to a judgment on the merits against them which can only be arrived at after a full-blown trial. The parties can rest assured knowing that, notwithstanding our decision, the disposition of the main case for qualified theft has not become a foregone conclusion,” it added.
The CA said its order is meant as an ancillary measure to secure the effective adjudication and enforcement of the rights of all the parties, once the main case runs its proper course.
It added that having voluntarily admitted possession of the subject documents not just in official correspondence but also in filings related to the main case, such as their comment and several other pleadings, the Yanson 4 could not claim that the directive to surrender these documents to the court a quo for safekeeping violates their right against self-incrimination.
“Our assailed decision simply directed respondents Yanson to surrender the subject documents, as indicated in the information and admitted in their letter to the register of deeds and comment to the DOJ (Department of Justice), to the trial court in order to place these in custodia legis. Such relief being ancillary to the main case, the parties can flesh out a list of the subject documents with the court a quo, submitting any other supporting documents as the latter may require,” the CA said.
“In fine, while the parties herein have presented no new and convincing documents which would justify a modification or reversal of our assailed decision, we deem it best to amend the same in order to include a corresponding directive for the court a quo,” it added.
Aside from Vallacar Transit Incorporated (VTI), the Yanson Group of Bus Companies (YGBC) also controls the Ceres bus company whose buses plied routes in the Visayas and Mindanao regions.
VTI is the country’s largest bus transit company operating more than 4,000 buses, with 18,000 employees, and more than P15 billion in annual revenues.
The battle to control the company between the Yanson siblings has escalated into a legal battle, with both sides filing charges against the other and claiming they are the real management.
The Yanson matriarch Olivia and two of her children remain in physical control of the bus firm and its operations.
A Bacolod court in October 2021 had granted Olivia the mandate to oversee and administer the estate of her late husband who co-founded the YGBC with Olivia in 1968.
