• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Not yet final and subject to appeal.
This was stated by Atty. CJ Narvasa, counsel of the four Yanson siblings, in response to the amended decision of the Court of Appeals (CA) 20th Division requiring his clients to surrender certificates of title and related documents they allegedly previously admitted to be in their possession.
Known as the Y4, the four siblings include Roy, Emily, Ricardo Jr. and Maria Celina.
In a press statement, Narvasa said that the CA order is not a judgement on the merits of the cases involving the documents in question, neither is it to penalize the Y4.
In fact, the said decision is not yet final and subject to appeal, he added.
Narvasa further said that the Y4 firmly assert that they are under no legal compulsion to submit these documents, particularly at the behest of Hernan B. Omecillo, the purported private complaining witness in the qualified theft case against the Yanson siblings.
They do not recognize him as the chief operating officer (COO) of Vallacar Transit Inc. (VTI) and was never authorized by the legitimate board of directors to file the complaint and represent the corporation.
As majority shareholders of VTI with 61.17 percent shares of the board of directors, only they could legally appoint the COO of the company and have not appointed him as such, the Y4 counsel said.
They also clarified that Omecillo is not a Yanson family member and therefore, has no right to demand such an action against them because the four are compulsory heirs of the founder of Yanson Group of Bus Companies (YGBC), their father, the late Dr. Ricardo B. Yanson, making them the rightful co-owners of the YGBC.
The Y4 are at odds with the family matriarch Olivia Yanson and their two siblings, Leo Rey and Ginette, over the management of the family’s businesses.
The CA directed the Y4 to submit to the custody of the trial court various original and certified true copies of certificates of title and related documents admitted to be in their possession.
“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 CA amended decision said.
Narvasa said that the Y4 have the perfect right under the law to safe keep the documents and other papers of the company, especially in the face of the forcible intrusion into the YGBC compound in August 2019 by the group of Omecillo with the aid of about 300 policemen without a search warrant or lawful order from the court. | GB
