Former police officer Wilfredo Gonzales was a no-show at the Land Transportation Office where he was summoned to appear on Thursday to explain why his driver’s license should not be revoked for four alleged violations.
Because of this, the LTO will resolve the cases against him without his explanation.
The LTO had preventively suspended Gonzales’ driver’s license pending investigation of the incident where he pulled out a gun on a cyclist during their road altercation near Welcome Rotonda in Quezon City.
The August 8 incident was caught on video, which went viral last week.
The LTO said Gonzales did not appear at the 2 p.m. hearing at the LTO on Thursday, August 31, and did not submit a counter-affidavit. He was instead represented by his son who surrendered his father’s driver’s license.
Since Gonzales had no counter-affidavit, the complaint against him would be resolved without his side, according to LTO-National Capital Region Acting Assistant Regional Director Hanzley Lim.
“Mr Gonzales did not submit an affidavit so we take it as a waiver on his part for us to decide on the matter based on the pieces of evidence we have,” Lim said in a statement.
According to the show cause order that Gonzales had received, failure to submit a notarized affidavit would be deemed as a waiver to hear and contradict the allegations against him.
The LTO earlier asked Gonzales to explain why he should not be penalized for violations of the Land Transportation and Traffic Code, which include reckless driving, obstruction of traffic, disregarding traffic sign, and being an improper person to operate a motor vehicle.
The maximum penalty in the cases against Gonzales in the LTO is permanent revocation of his driver’s license.
Meanwhile, the LTO said the registered owner of the KIA Rio that Gonzales was driving during the incident had submitted a notarized affidavit and a Deed of Sale showing that the vehicle had been sold to Gonzales’ son.
Aside from losing his driver’s license, Gonzales has also lost his firearms license and permit to carry.
He has also been dismissed from his job in the Supreme Court, where he was a coterminous employee of Associate Justice Ricardo Rosario.
