• THERESA MAE DULMAN
Forty-two former employees of Vallacar Transit Inc. (VTI) filed criminal complaints for three separate counts of grave coercion against company officials yesterday.
Human rights lawyer Atty. Dino De Leon, counsel for the complainants, alleged they were unlawfully forced out of their jobs during a 2019 leadership struggle within the Yanson family.
The complaints named Olivia Yanson, Leo Rey Yanson, Ginnette Dumancas, and other company officers as respondents.
They claimed that the workers were subjected to violence and intimidation, including the use of police and armed men to take over terminals without court orders.
According to the affidavits, the employees were barred from reporting for work or coerced into signing resignation and retirement papers.
De Leon characterized these actions as a violation of Article 286 of the Revised Penal Code, stating that the workers were compelled to make choices against their will to satisfy the interests of a specific corporate faction.
He added that the use of force during the terminal takeovers reflected a broader ‘climate of impunity’ that emboldened powerful interests to bypass legal labor processes.
Among the specific accounts, former data entry personnel and drivers detailed being locked out of offices and labeled as absent without official leave despite their attempts to report for duty.
The workers maintained that they never voluntarily chose sides in the family dispute and are now seeking justice for the loss of their livelihoods.*
