The Manila Times
MANILA, Philippines — A local court has declared four members of a family embroiled in an ownership dispute involving a bus company as fugitives from justice and barred them from seeking court relief or participating in legal proceedings until they surrender to authorities. In a resolution dated March 17, 2026, Judge Jose Manuel Lopez of the Regional Trial Court Branch 50 in Negros Occisental ruled that Roy, Ricardo Jr., Ma. Lourdes Celina, and Emily Yanson had willfully evaded the court’s jurisdiction by remaining abroad despite standing warrants for their arrest in connection with qualified theft charges. The court said the siblings’ continued absence showed clear intent to avoid prosecution, warranting sanctions that effectively strip them of legal standing in the case. “For the willful evasion by the accused of the Court’s jurisdiction, the accused should be sanctioned rather than rewarded,” Lopez said in the ruling. He added that their actions amounted to a waiver of their right to present evidence and participate in proceedings unless they submit to the court’s authority. Court records showed that three of the siblings left the Philippines on March 7, 2020, days before Covid-19 lockdowns were imposed. Another, Ma. Lourdes Celina Yanson, has not returned to the country since 2005. The court noted that despite their absence, the accused continued to engage in the proceedings through legal counsel, describing their stance as being in “spectator mode” while remaining beyond the reach of Philippine criminal law. In issuing the ruling, the court applied the fugitive disentitlement doctrine, a legal principle that bars individuals from invoking court processes while defying its authority. The doctrine was recently reaffirmed by the Supreme Court in a related ruling in November 2025. The charges stem from a long-running intra-family disapute over control of Vallacar Transit Inc., the operator of the Ceres Liner bus network and the country’s largest bus transport group. Prosecutors alleged that the four siblings, acting as self-appointed company officers during a 2019 power struggle, unlawfully took corporate assets and equipment. Under Philippine law, qualified theft may be considered non-bailable when it involves large amounts or grave abuse of confidence. The court has set a follow-up hearing on May 6, 2026, to monitor the status of the arrest warrants. Pending their surrender, the accused will no longer receive court notices or be allowed to file motions, in line with the court’s order. The Yanson Group, which operates thousands of buses nationwide and employs tens of thousands of workers, continues to run its daily operations under the leadership of Leo Rey Yanson and family matriarch Olivia Yanson despite the ongoing legal dispute.
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