THE Office of the City Prosecutor in Bacolod City has dismissed the frustrated murder and serious physical injury charges filed by an employee of the Vallacar Transit Inc. (VTI) against the Yanson Four: Roy Yanson, Ricardo Yanson Jr., Emily Yanson, and Celina Yanson-Lopez.
In a resolution dated September 19, it said the reason for the dismissal was because the alleged perpetrators were not positively identified and the submitted evidence failed to establish the theory of conspiracy and evident premeditation.
Lawyer Raul Bitoon, spokesperson for the Yanson siblings, said his clients called the charges “baseless and totally fabricated.”
“For serious charges, such as the ones supposedly filed against the ‘Yanson Four,’ to hurdle the rigors of scrutiny by the Office of the City Prosecutor, they should be based on clear and credible evidence as to amount to the existence of probable cause and should not be anchored solely on presumptions, surmises, and conjectures,” said Bitoon.
Last month, Cirilo Alingasa, an employee of VTI, the parent company of the Ceres bus liners, filed frustrated murder and serious physical injury charges against the Yanson Four and claimed he was injured when the group’s supporters threw a bottle of paint thinner at him.
He claimed, as assisting police opened the steel gate to the company’s headquarters in Bacolod City’s Barangay Mansilingan, the spilled paint thinner started a fire after making contact with sparks created by the blowtorch he was operating.
Alingasa said that he incurred severe burns to his right hand and believes the incident was an “intent to kill.”
He went on to claim the supporters were acting on orders from the Yanson Four
The charges were filed before the Bacolod City Prosecutor’s Office.
Aside from the Yansons, other respondents named were Police Brigadier General Noli Romana, Police Colonel Jomil John Trio, and several “John and Jane Does.”