Family first

Did you know that the biggest bus conglomerate in Southeast Asia is based right here in the Philippines?

The Yanson Group of Bus Companies, composed of six subsidiaries, has over 4,000 bus units plying routes in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao and employs 18,000 workers. Established in 1968, the group provides transport services to 700,000 passengers a day and has annual revenues of about P15 billion.

The group’s subsidiaries are Vallacar Transit Inc. (VTI) which includes Ceres Liner, Ceres Tours, Sugbo Transit and Sugbo Tours; Rural Transit of Mindanao Inc. (Rural Transit, Rural Tours); Bachelor Express Inc. (Bachelor Express and Bachelor Tours); Southern Star Bus Transit Inc. (Southern Star); Ceres Transport Inc. (Ceres Transport); Gold Star Bus Transit Inc. (Gold Star); and Mindanao Star Bus Transport Inc. (Island City Express and Mindanao Star).

VTI was the first company put up by Ricardo Yanson and his wife Olivia Villaflores. They began with the purchase of one jeepney and then went into jeepney assembly. But when the market was started to be flooded with Ford Fieras in the early ‘70s, the couple decided to diversify into a small bus line which plied the Bacolod City-Valladolid-La Carlota route (hence, ValLaCar) and named it the Ceres Liner, after the founder’s younger sister. VTI now has 838 transport vehicles, operating and serving in the Visayas, as well as the Zamboanga Peninsula.

A nurse by profession, Olivia helped her husband manage the business from the ground up.  She recalls how they hardly had enough money to buy food for all their children when they were starting.

For many years, everything was going smoothly for this family-owned and managed group. Until the patriarch Ricardo died in 2015.

According to news reports, Olivia was stripped of her own stake in VTI by four of her six children. It appears that she was previously made to sign documents stating that she was giving up her shares in the company in favor of her children. 

She reminded her children about the hardship that they went through as a family before the success of their business split them into warring factions.

Already 85 years old, Olivia reminded her children that they are only stewards of the family business for the next generation. 

Last July 7, 2019, four Yanson siblings, namely Roy, Ricardo Jr., Emily and Celina, in a purported special board meeting, unseated their brother Leo Rey as president of VTI. Leo Rey, was replaced by his eldest brother Roy but Leo Rey with the support of his mother, Olivia and sister Ginnette, refused to step down.

On Aug. 19, the stockholders of VTI, including the Yanson matriarch, elected a new set of board of directors who subsequently re-elected Leo Rey as president.

Leo Rey said claiming that his mother Olivia no longer owns VTI is wrong and it is only but fitting and proper that she be accorded respect and control over what she built over the years.

Unfortunately, the feud does not end here. VTI is also asking its former chief finance officer Celina, one of the siblings, to explain around P381 million in unaccounted funds as shown by an audit done by SGV.

Who is to blame

Rice is the most important good crop of the developing world and the staple food of more than half of the world’s population, according to ricepedia.org.

For Filipinos, eating is not complete without rice. To quote an article from flipscience.ph, “for millions of Filipinos, rice is life. No self-respecting Pinoy would eat adobo or sinigang without it… It is a staple for breakfast, lunch and dinner… No Pinoy meal would be complete without it.”

In the same article, it was noted that “low-income Filipinos consumed more rice, with families in the bottom 30 percent income group registering a percentage that was higher at 59.7 percent. For families in the upper 70 percent income group, the figure was at 38.8 percent.” It added: “Lower-income Filipinos, especially those in rural areas, were dependent on these grain because other food items were not affordable enough.”

So imagine how happy Filipinos became when rice suddenly became affordable, thanks to the new Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) that was signed by President Duterte last February.

Before the RTL, rice imports were controlled via a system of import quotas. But because these were no longer allowed under the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement to which the Philippines was a signatory, these quantitative restrictions had to be replaced with import duties or tariffs.

Now, cheap imported rice can be brought in by importers, provided they are willing to pay the duties, which are at 35 percent if sourced from ASEAN countries, and from 40 percent to 180 percent if imported elsewhere.

The new law also removed the rice importing function of the National Food Authority (NFA).

Unfortunately, any import regime has to deal with the age-old problem of smuggling and corruption.

During a recent Senate hearing, Sen. Cynthia Villar criticized the failure to stop cartels and hoarding, which she identified as the ones causing the artificial shortage and high prices of rice and other agricultural products.

She called on Agriculture Secretary William Dar to implement developmental measures to counter the operation of cartels and hoarders by improving the productivity and competitiveness of local farmers, even as she urged the Department of Justice and the Philippine Competition Commission to make an example of even just one cartel to show that the law is being implemented.

It was revealed that wealthy rice traders, particularly the so-called Binondo rice cartel, benefitted from the government’s rice importation program, and not legitimate farmers’ groups. At the hearing, it was disclosed that there are about 13 traders believed to be operating the biggest rice cartels in Metro Manila and controlling rice prices.

The firms were reportedly hoarding rice from the NFA to mix it with other rice types so they could resell it as commercial rice. The companies’ warehouses are mostly based in Tondo.

Dar agrees that hoarding is causing the drop in the prices of palay in the market and not the implementation of the RTL. He said some millers and traders may have used the tariffication law to gain access and hoard supply of the grain.

According to some farmers, the price of palay has dropped to as low as P7 per kilo following the imposition of tariffs on the commodity, but Dar said the drop in prices of had started even before the RTL was implemented.

To address the stockpiling and hoarding, Dar said the DA and the Department of Trade and Industry would inspect rice warehouses and monitor market prices.

Dar added that they need to strictly implement anti-hoarding laws even as he asked millers and traders to start releasing their rice stocks and replenish their supply with palay and rice bought from local farmers.

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