The legal counsel of Sycip, Gorres and Velayo, the country’s top auditing firm, on Wednesday cleared the former chief financial officer of Vallacar Transit Inc. of any liability over the alleged P380-million fund mess.
SGV, through Poblador, Bautista and Reyes Law Office, cleared Celina Yanson-Lopez of any liability on the controversy. The auditing firm made the clarification shortly after Leo Rey Yanson and Yanson clan matriarch Olivia Yanson blamed Yanson-Lopez for the missing funds.
Sheila Sison, representing Yanson-Lopez and three other Yanson siblings, earlier described the accusations against her clients as untrue and baseless.
Roy Yanson, the eldest of the six Yanson siblings, said that the discovery of the fund mess might have led to the recent squabble among members of the Yanson family.
Disagreements between the clan’s matriarch Olivia and the Yanson siblings on how to treat those who committed the fund mess broke the once stable board into two factions, with the first faction led by Roy, Ricky, Celina and Emily Yanson.
The four Yanson siblings said the minority block led by Leo Rey and Ginnette Dumancas who sided with their mother, were also the first to protest the filing of criminal charges against a former company official who was described as one of the matriarch’s pet employees.
Representatives of Leo Yanson were unavailable to issue an official statement as of press time.
Acting upon the written request of Atty. Sigfrid Fortun, senior partner of Fortun Narvasa & Salazar and counsel of the Yanson majority namely, Roy, Ricky, Celina and Emily Yanson, SGV asked its legal counsel to provide a reply to Fortun’s inquiry and clarify if its audit report indeed refers to CYL as the one responsible for the reported missing funds.
Poblador Bautista and Reyes Law Offices said in a letter dated Sept. 10 that “without disclosing the contents of its report, SGV can confirm that the Report did not refer to Ms. Yanson-Lopez as the person directly liable for the loss of the funds.”
The firm’s senior partner, Alexander Poblador and Deogracias Fellone both signed the letter on behalf of SGV.
