Aguilar: A Ceres of unfortunate events

THE Yanson family feud seems far from over. None of the two camps is willing to fold. For weeks, I was trying to hold myself from commenting about the issue because I am relatively new in this province and my take may just be off tangent from the real context surrounding the conflict. But the unfolding of the family drama has dominated our paper for days which pretty much shows the immense impact it has to our community.

Allow me therefore to dissect the issue at hand. On one hand, Vallacar Transit Inc. (VTI) is a family business owned by the Yansons while on another hand, it is corporation. As a corporation, it is technically governed by the board of directors and managed by a chief executive officer (CEO), at least in paper that is. When the board decided to replace the CEO for whatever reason, it should have been automatic as well that such ruling gets carried out just like any other rulings that the board decides over the business. Any existing corporation is governed by such rule.

Apparently, there is more to the issue than just technicalities. While the business was registered as a corporation, it was first and foremost a family business. Rightly so, it was an empire built for years not just by pushing papers or by majority votes of the board, rather by building connections with stakeholders way beyond what papers can reveal. When the ousted president decided to flex his muscles and use his cards to gain back control, the rest of us saw just how deeply connected and powerful the CEO is. Rightly so, he was not CEO for no reason, something his siblings who were not savvy of the operations failed to factor in. I mean VTI would not have dominated the transport industry in Visayas and Mindanao if the CEO was not an alpha or if he was not decisive at least.

I could remember, while I was still a senior executive in one of the cities in Mindanao, VTI requested that they be allowed to ferry their passengers from one terminal to the other to secure their connecting passengers from being taken by other competitors. We did not allow it of course for two reasons: one it was not safe for big buses to crisscross city streets and two, it will kill small transportation services. To make the story short, they provided coasters which are technically not buses while they lobbied with local decision makers and so they had it their way and got what they wanted without breaking any existing ordinance. That was how aggressive they are when it comes to their operations.

As to who is the legitimate president between Roy and Leo Rey now, I think even our courts cannot provide answer to that, well there may be a ruling eventually, but I don’t think that will be enough to legitimize claim of their bus empire, just like our claim in the islands in South China Sea, only in paper. My point is, they have to solve that as a family; after all it was first a family business before it was a corporation.

Anyway, if the squabble escalates further and the two camps are not careful of their moves, they may just lose their whole company to the government. Transport service is not just any kind of business that the owners can close shop or suspend operation anytime they want. It is like water and electricity which have great implications on public welfare. When LRY gave free rides after the operation was halted, it was a smart move to establish good faith. You see, the government in exercise of police power can very well take over the whole company so as not to freeze about 95% of the economic activities in the province that are dependent in their transport service.

The thing is, the root of the squabble is not even considered a real community crisis but the negative effect it has to the city and to the province is so tremendous. If they will not factor in the people and the businesses that get affected by their family feud, they might just lose everything.

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