The Land Transportation Office on Friday announced the revocation of the driver’s license of ex-police afficer Wilfredo Gonzales, who was caught on a viral video pulling a gun on a cyclist, for two years.
LTO chief Vigor Mendoza III said Gonzales was culpable for four charges against him — reckless driving, obstruction of traffic, and improper person to operate a motor vehicle.
“Why only two years? This is so because such cases are punishable only up to four years revocation,” Mendoza added.
Since there was no incident of death or injury, he said the LTO cannot impose a lifetime revocation of Gonzales’ driver’s license.
“So that is our basis… because there was no death or injury. What aggravated the situation is that he pulled out a gun,” Mendoza emphasized.
But lawyer Raymond Fortun urged the Philippine National Police to file more cases against Gonzales, a Supreme Court employee who was caught slapping and wielding a firearm against cyclist Allan Bandiola in Quezon City last month.
Fortun said he believes that the alarm and scandal case filed by the Quezon City police against Gonzales was lacking, citing its lighter penalty.
If we look at our CCTV footage, there are other crimes that I believe have been achieved,” Fortun told TeleRadyo Serbisyo during an interview.
First of all, the frustrated homicide, then slander by deed, the slapping, fighting, and then the grave threats. It is obvious that he took out a gun and still had it,” he added.
Furthermore, during the Senate inquiry, a barangay official said this week that Gonzales had faced multiple complaints for alleged violence, threats, and intimidation.
Nonetheless, the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief said last August 31 that the former policeman should have been arrested.
“If only the concerned police station [had] investigated it properly, Wilfredo Gonzales should have been put into arrest,” NCRPO chief Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. told ANC.
Nartatez said Gonzales made a “clear violation of the law” when he brandished a firearm at the cyclist in Quezon City.
