Tedious

China’s navy is not about to give up their control over Bajo de Masinloc just because a single diver from the Philippine Coast Guard untethered that clumsy “floating barrier” last week. The barrier, an obvious hazard to fishing boats in the area, was installed by China across the mouth of the contested lagoon to keep Filipino boats from entering.

Yesterday, this paper reported that the Chinese maritime militia deployed rubber boats to continue their blockade of the lagoon. They threaten, harass and physically block the movement of our fishing boats.

The Philippines has the UN Convention on the Laws of the Sea (UNCLOS) on its side. The lagoon lies well within the 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) over which our country enjoys sovereign rights.

In 2012, a naval confrontation occurred in the lagoon after the Philippine Coast Guard apprehended Chinese fishermen hauling giant clams from the area. Filipino and Chinese vessels crowded the lagoon, each refusing to budge. Then President Benigno Aquino III was first to blink, ordering our ships out of the lagoon after US diplomats assured us the Chinese would remove their ships as well.

Instead of withdrawing, the Chinese flotilla remained with uncontested control of the lagoon. They remain there a decade after, shooing away Filipino (and Vietnamese) fishermen who traditionally fished in the lagoon’s rich waters before Beijing laid claim to the area.

The Philippine position is to assert the country’s EEZ rights at Bajo de Masinloc. Philippine Coast Guard vessels continue to assist Filipino fishermen venturing to fish in the area. Needless to say, Manila rejects the ridiculous 10-dash line claims advanced by Beijing.

Within the framework of the new West Philippine Sea posture the country has adopted, the Philippines will continue to put pressure on Chinese naval presence in reefs and shoals within our EEZ. We might expect years of tedious, “managed” confrontation in the contested areas.

Maintaining this strategy of enhanced presence and unyielding vigilance is going to be costly. But the Philippines has no other option but to sustain this strategy. We know from experience that once the Chinese maritime militia is left unchallenged, they will proceed to build artificial islands and, eventually, military bases.

The discovery of crushed corals in shoals claimed by the Philippines but virtually occupied by Chinese maritime militia vessels indicate Beijing’s determination to build more artificial islands well within our EEZ. We cannot let our guard down – even if this confrontation lasts generations and costs our coffers dearly.

Disinherited

Like the unending – and unyielding – story of competing claims in the South China Sea, the internecine legal struggle among the two factions of the Yanson family just goes on and on. The Yanson family owns Vallacar Transit Inc., the largest overland transport company in the country.

On one side of this struggle is the matriarch Olivia Villaflores Yanson and two of her children, Leo Rey and Ginette. Leo Rey now manages the company after fending off a hostile takeover by four of his other siblings.

On the other side are Olivia’s four other children: Roy, Emily, Ma. Lourdes Celina and Ricardo Jr. The four attempted to take control of the family company a few years back by way of a boardroom coup. All four are now abroad, trying to evade an assortment of arrest warrants issued after their takeover bid failed.

Olivia Yanson filed a petition for probate of her last will and testament on April 15, 2019. In that will, Olivia disinherited the so-called Yanson Four as it named Leo Rey and Ginette as the universal heirs of the family wealth. A “probate” is the formal legal process that recognizes a will.

On Aug. 31, 2023, the Bacolod City Regional Trial Court Branch 44 ruled to allow probate on Olivia’s will. According to Presiding Judge Ana Celeste Bernad, “(t)he last will and testament of Olivia Villaflores Yanson is allowed probate as it complied with the formalities required by law.”

Judge Bernad, in her proclamation on the petition, said those opposing the said petition had not presented any evidence that would show that there was undue influence or pressure exerted on the petitioner before or during the execution of her last will and testament. When she filed the petition, Olivia Yanson was 85 and evidently in full possession of her faculties. Now 89, Olivia is young for her age, keeping abreast with developments relating to the company she helped build with her late husband since the company’s founding in 1968.

The Yanson Four opposed the probate of her will, claiming their mother was improperly influenced and pressured by siblings Leo Rey and Ginette. They failed to convince the court of this claim.

In any eventuality, therefore, the Yanson family fortune passes exclusively to Leo Rey and Ginette. The four others now stand disinherited. This will have clear consequences on the claims of the Yanson Four to the transport company owned by Olivia.

The high-caliber legal team retained by the Yanson Four will surely find some means to bring the probate question to a higher court. They will try to find any sliver of possibility the legal contest might be prolonged. This legal battle is expected to continue on for years. Meanwhile, the probate stands. Leo Rey controls management of the transport company.

Meanwhile, too, the Yanson Four are abroad, fugitives from arrest warrants issued against them. They have neither effective control of the company nor do they stand to inherit the family fortune.