Call it a hostile takeover but on Saturday, National Transport Limited took control of the Bus Owners' Cooperative. As we've been reporting, the Novelo brothers claim that the co-operative owes them hundreds of thousand dollars under a lease agreement signed in February. The Novelo's claim that the Co-op has failed to pay for the buses which were leased to them and in an agreement signed in April, the cooperative agreed to sign over their permits to National Transport. But the Co-op says their former chairman Wayne Meyers had no authority to sign the lease agreement and plan to challenge it in court.
But National didn't wait for the court, on Saturday they took over management of the cooperative and its 14 daily runs. National Transport has also claimed that it has hired 28 members of the cooperative. But the Co-op's treasurer Anna Young says that's not what happened. This evening she told us a completely different story.
Anna Young, Treasurer - BBOC
"They were supposed to take over on Saturday since eight o'clock, that is our last run. Yesterday morning I received a call from one of our members stating that they were passengers waiting there in Benque from since four o'clock yesterday morning and he called me and tried to get in contact with the Commissioner (Transport) but I couldn't get through. Apparently though the National Transport were not running on our schedule.
So this morning there was a meeting scheduled with Hon. Vildo Marin along with Isabel Chan, our Chairman and Mr. Miranda. We were told that the contract was not a legal contract since it was just signed by Mr. Meyers without the consultation of our members. And the letter that was signed on April 20th, was not approved by the members because he was saying that he is going to transfer everything over to Novelo's without consulting the members. That was not what was supposed to happen. So apparently we were told that they were going to hold off everything and we are going to take Mr. Meyers to court."
Keith Swift,
So right now, is the BBOC still running buses?
Anna Young,
"At this point no. We are waiting to hear from the Transport Department sometime this evening and then we will know what we are going to do tomorrow."
Keith Swift,
You guys have something like fourteen runs during the day, are any buses running during those time slots?
Anna Young,
"As far as I was told, National Transport is supposed to be taking up those runs."
Keith Swift,
What is your hope?
Anna Young,
"Well I am hoping that we can resume our business because we have a lot of loyal customers and that is our bread and butter so we are hoping that we get a positive response sometime today."
So what is the real story? Well spokesman for the Ministry of Transport Glenn Tillet says the matter is still being resolved. He however confirms that National has taken over the 14 runs and has hired 28 employees from the Bus Co-op. He says there is still confusion but the bottom line is that the Ministry will respect the April 20th agreement between National Transport and the Bus Owners Co-op. As for Vildo Marin's statement on the matter, Tillet says Marin is the Minister of Cooperatives, not of transport. He again stressed that Bus Co-op is insolvent and bankrupt.
