• CHRYSEE G. SAMILLANO
Olivia Villaflores-Yanson, co-founder and owner of Vallacar Transit, Inc., is donating about 400 hectares of trees to the University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos (UNO-R) for the construction of an evacuation center.
Yanson, fondly known as OVY, made the announcement during her conferment as Doctor of Philisophy in Business Management (Honoris Causa) yesterday at UNO-R, upon the suggestion of her daughter, Ginnette Dumancas, to build the facility with the help of the mayor and other city officials.
The Yanson matriarch said that since she cannot afford to build such a big project, she is donating instead the trees she planted more than 10 years ago in the Municipality of Basay, Bayawan City, Negros Oriental, for its construction.
As an environmentalist, she used her resources to take productive action in the reforestation of more than 750 hectares of denuded land in Bayawan, as well as in Talisay, Negros Occidental. She also advocated for the rehabilitation of marine sanctuaries in Dauin, Neg. Or.
OVY, a nurse by profession, recalled that her mother wanted her to proceed to medicine after she graduated from Nursing. “However, I was able to obtain a doctor’s degree in just one day,” she jokingly told the crowd during her conferment yesterday.
She practiced her Nursing profession for two years in Dumaguete City after graduating from Silliman University. But it was when she conducted rural practice that she realized the dreams of many who were less fortunate, she said.
Living a life of generosity, charity, love and concern for others, Yanson founded the OVY Education and Health Care Foundation, Inc. to extend education and health care assistance to underprivileged Negrosanons.*
