Makati court suspends criminal proceedings vs. Yanson 4 lawyer

The MTC of Makati granted a motion filed by Atty. Anna Isabella Galvez, lawyer for the Yanson 4, for the suspension of proceedings and to hold warrants of arrest in abeyance, a statement from Atty. Carlo Joaquin Narvasa said yesterday.

In a resolution dated October 28, 2021, Judge Xavier del Castillo confirmed the existence of a prejudicial question in a separate civil action before the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Bacolod City, which is determinative of the guilt or innocence of the accused in the criminal cases and must thus be resolved first before the criminal action can proceed, Narvasa said.

Judge Del Castillo ruled that should the RTC of Bacolod find that the July 7, 2019 Board Meeting of Vallacar Transit Inc. valid, including the resolutions and corporate actions adopted by its board of directors at the said meeting and thereafter, it would follow that the statements made by Atty. Galvez in the company’s 2020 General Information Sheet filed with the SEC are truthful. Thus, there could be no falsification of a public document, he added.

“Similarly, if the July 7, 2019 VTI Board Meeting is upheld by the RTC of Bacolod, Atty. Galvez and the Yanson 4 can not be considered to have made a willful assertion of falsehood and for Perjury to be committed by them,” Narvasa stated in his statement.

“Judge Del Castillo then said that both criminal actions for Falsification and Perjury hinge on the final determination by the Bacolod court of the pending intra-corporate suit between the warring Yanson factions in Commercial Court Case No. 19-119. To avoid conflicting decisions between two courts, it is proper to suspend the proceedings before him until the intra-corporate issues are resolved pursuant to Section 6 and 7, Rule 111 of the Rules of Criminal Procedure,” Narvasa also said.*