THOUSANDS of passengers going to and from the southern part of the province were affected by the suspension of trips of all southbound Ceres buses Wednesday, August 7, amid the squabbling of the Yanson siblings.
The feud erupted when siblings Roy, Ricardo Jr., Celina and Emily ousted their younger brother Leo Rey as the company president and installed Roy, the eldest of the Yanson siblings, as the new company president.
Leo Rey, who has the support of sister Ginnette Yanson-Dumancas and their mother Olivia Yanson, is contesting his ouster.
Norman Golez, lawyer of Leo Rey’s camp, said the Ceres chief finance officer Celina publicly ordered the suspension of trips after she and Roy, who were inside the terminal, found out that the security guards of Armored Guards Negros Security Agency (AGNSA) have been reinstalled by the police at the said terminal.
The order came after the Supervisory Office for Security and Investigation Agencies (Sosia) installed AGNSA hired by Leo Rey after the former took over the Ceres South Terminal located at Sambok, Lopez Jaena, Bacolod City from AY-76 Security Agency hired by Roy, Tuesday.
READ: Cops 'take over' Ceres terminal in Bacolod
All the keys of the southbound Ceres buses were taken from the drivers, Golez revealed.
Golez said, “The suspension is not to our liking because early this morning Celina made the public declaration to suspend operation. When the CIDG talked to them to go out from the facility they did not follow. They took the keys. So there’s no way for us to operate.”
He also revealed that Leo Rey tried Wednesday to pull out available buses to provide free trips to the affected passengers but he failed because all the keys of the buses were taken from the drivers by the other camp.
Leo Rey has declared through an inter-office memorandum Wednesday a paid holiday for their employees at the South Terminal which means despite that there was a stoppage of operation the employees including the drivers will still get their pay.
“We don’t want our drivers and employees to suffer from the consequences of the stoppage of the operation,” Golez said.
He added that he will have to say how much losses the company has incurred with the stoppage of the South Terminal operation.
He also stood firm that the installation of AGNSA at the south terminal is legal by virtue of the order from Camp Crame.
In a statement, Sigfrid Fortun, legal counsel of Roy and his three siblings, strongly denounced the action taken by members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Provincial Office 6 in trying to dislodge members of the board holed up in their corporate offices in South terminal in Bacolod City.
Fortun, lead counsel of the bus company’s board, filed an injunction case against Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Oscar Albayalde, Police Mayor General Amador Corpus, chief of the Criminal Investigation Detection Group (CIDG), Police Major General Reynaldo Biay, chief of the PNP civil security group, PNP Brigadier General Rene Pamuspusan, chief of the Provincial Office 6 and Police Colonel Michael John Dubria, acting chief of the Spsia.
The injunction case called on the courts to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) enjoining police officials to cease and desist from deploying PNP personnel in the area and interfering with the issues being resolved by members of the board of the bus company. The case cited the unreasonable use of force by the PNP without a legal order.
However, Golez said the TRO was denied by the court and the hearing was set on August 13 for the case against the said police officials.
Roy Yanson is reportedly in a state of shock while most of the employees are living in fear after several hundreds of police personnel refused to allow them to leave or enter the bus terminals.
Several men of Leo Rey, former bus president, had cut telephone, electricity and water lines, Atty. Sheila Sison, one of the lawyers of Roy revealed.
She also said that food for Roy and Celina were not permitted inside.
Roy has urged the acting chief of the Sosia to stand down or face contempt of court charges after allowing his men to be part of an attempt to illegally takeover security services of three bus terminals in Bacolod city.
Fortun said commuters and employees of Vallacar Transit Incorporated (VTI) are now in a state of fear after seeing heavily armed men at the terminal gates.
Lawyer Raul Bitoon, company spokesperson of Roy’s camp in a press conference inside a bus that is barring at the entrance of the VTI Mansilingan main office, said that they have no plan yet to resume the operation unless SOSIA removes all the security personnel of AGNSA at the premises of the south terminal.
He said it’s the PNP that should be blamed for the stoppage of the operation after they failed to comply with the agreement of not allowing any security personnel when they took over the terminal Tuesday.
He added that they are closely guarding the Mansilingan premises to preempt the same take over that happened at the south terminal.
Golez apologized to the passengers who are affected, “We would like to express our deepest apologies for the troubles but it’s not our fault. We would like a peaceful takeover but they don’t want to vacate the premises despite that the police and the CIDG want them to leave.”