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Cops deployed to secure Ceres office, terminal in Bacolod

By Nanette Guadalquiver

August 7, 2019, 7:39 am

<p><strong>COPS FOR SECURITY.</strong> Col. Jaime Santos (2<sup>nd</sup> from left), chief of PNP SOSIA Enforcement Management Division, with the policemen deployed to temporarily secure the Vallacar Transit Inc. main office compound in Barangay Mansilingan, Bacolod City starting Tuesday afternoon. <em>(Photo courtesy of Raquel Gariando)</em></p>
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COPS FOR SECURITY. Col. Jaime Santos (2nd from left), chief of PNP SOSIA Enforcement Management Division, with the policemen deployed to temporarily secure the Vallacar Transit Inc. main office compound in Barangay Mansilingan, Bacolod City starting Tuesday afternoon. (Photo courtesy of Raquel Gariando)

  

BACOLOD CITY -- The Philippine National Police (PNP) has deployed some 100 personnel to secure the main office and the south terminal of Vallacar Transit Inc. (VTI), the operator of Ceres buses, in this city on Tuesday afternoon.

The police officers were dispatched based on the request of the PNP national headquarters’ Supervisory Office on Security and Investigation Agencies (SOSIA), represented by Col. Jaime Santos, chief of the Enforcement Management Division.

“Our purpose of deploying the police is to maintain peace and order,” Santos said in an interview at the VTI main office compound in Barangay Mansilingan.

Santos, with personnel from the Regional Civil and Security Unit (RCSU) in Western Visayas, came to this city on Tuesday morning to serve the order signed by Col. Michael John Dubria, chief of PNP SOSIA, directing the blue guards of AY-76 Security Specialists Inc. to vacate the premises of the VTI compound, and the Ceres Bacolod South Terminal on Lopez Jaena Street.

Last month, personnel of AY-76 took over the security services in the two areas from their counterparts in the AGNSA Negros Security Agency amid the conflict between the Yanson family members, owners of Vallacar Transit and four other bus firms under the Yanson Group of Bus Companies, the country’s largest bus conglomerate.

Four Yanson siblings, Roy, Ricardo Jr., Celina and Emily, ousted their younger brother Leo Rey as company president, and replaced him with Roy during a special board meeting held on July 7.

Roy then held office in the Mansilingan compound, and days later, replaced AGNSA “due to loss of trust and confidence”. Blue guards from AY-76 were hired to secure the main office and the south terminal.

Santos said the SOSIA, as a regulatory office, receives complaints and cases, and one of these involves the AY-76 Security Specialists Inc. related to Vallacar Transit.

The AGNSA security guards were supposed to return on Tuesday, but there was tension, he said.

“Instead, to be neutral we filled in personnel from the Bacolod City Police Office. They were requested to temporarily man the areas until such the situation will normalize,” he added.

More than 60 police personnel have been deployed to secure the Vallacar Transit compound in Mansilingan while a similar number are securing the south terminal. The police composite team also includes contingent from the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office.

“They will get orders from the city director, Col. Henry Binas,” Santos said.

Lawyer Raul Bitoon, spokesperson for Roy Yanson and his three siblings, said in a press statement that policemen “cannot just effect a takeover of a private facility without just cause”, adding that such action is “patently illegal and sends a wrong signal to the business community”.

“These PNP personnel came in here without any court order. They are heavily armed…Let me remind these PNP personnel that Ceres bus line is a public utility firm and the law punishes those who will cause disruption in bus operations,” he added.

Lawyer Norman Golez, who represents Leo Rey Yanson, said the SOSIA has the jurisdiction to “physically oust” the AY-76 security guards.

“The SOSIA is here to make sure that AY-76 peacefully turns over to AGNSA, which has the valid and existing service contract with Vallacar Transit president Leo Rey Yanson,” he added.

Meanwhile, the ongoing feud among the Yansons has also reached the courts. The Regional Trial Court Branch 54 presided by Judge Eduardo Sayson has set two hearings on Aug. 30 and Sept. 6 to resolve whether the July 7 special board meeting was legal or not.

Also, the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB) has scheduled a meeting on Aug. 10 on the notice of strike filed by Philippine Agriculture, Commercial and Industrial Workers Union, the bus company’s registered union, due to unresolved dispute of the Yanson family. (PNA)

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