The board of Vallacar Transit Inc., the country's largest bus transport company that operates Ceres Liner and Sugbo Transit, insisted that its former chief financial officer, Celina Yanson-Lopez, is liable for the missing P380 million during her watch.
“It is not true that SGV cleared Celina Yanson-Lopez [CYL] of any liability on the P380-million stolen fund mess,” the VTI's legal team said in a statement.
It issued the statement following newspaper reports that a letter of auditing firm SyCip, Gorres Velayo and Co. cleared CYL of her alleged involvement in a P380-million financial mess.
In a letter dated Sept. 10, SGV’s legal counsel Poblador Bautista and Reyes Law Offices said, “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 board of VTI, however, said SGV's counsel merely stated in the letter that “…SGV can confirm that the report did not refer to Ms. Yanson-Lopez as the person directly liable for the loss of the funds.”
“To put it simply, liability may be incurred by someone who either directly or indirectly participated in the offense. If SGV really cleared CYL from liability for the stolen funds, then it shouldn’t have qualified its statement with the word 'directly,” VTI's legal team said.
“What is very clear is that during CYL’s term as treasurer/CFO, the P380 million was stolen and/or unaccounted for,” the VTI’s legal team said.
VTI is the largest company under the Yanson Group of Bus Companies which operates more than 4,000 buses nationwide and employs 18,000 individuals who serve 700,000 passengers daily. The bus conglomerate was founded in 1968 by Ricardo Yanson Sr. who died in 2015 and his wife Olivia V. Yanson.
Olivia, the Yanson matriarch, assured the riding public that the operations of Ceres and Sugbo bus lines will not be interrupted again after the shareholders and board of directors of VTI reelected her youngest son, Leo Rey Yanson, as president of the company on Aug. 19.
“As one of the founders of Vallacar Transit, I assure each and every one of you that our transport services will not be interrupted by any acts or unlawful means that may crop up from the corporate squabbles going on within our corporate organization,” OVY said.