VIRAL ENCOUNTER Wilfredo Gonzales, driver of a red sedan, went viral online after assaulting a cyclist. Gonzales is shown here pulling out and cocking a handgun as he confronts the unnamed cyclist near Welcome Rotunda at the boundary of Manila and Quezon City. —VIDEOGRAB FROM YOUTUBE
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police said it will ask a dismissed police officer who figured in a recent viral road rage video to return the retirement benefits he had received and warned of legal action if he failed to comply.
Police Brig. Gen. Niño David Rabaya, director of the PNP Retirement and Benefits Administration Service (PRBS), said Wilfredo Gonzales had received a lump sum of his pension for three years from 2016 to 2019 worth P588,000.
Gonzales retired from the service when he reached the mandatory age of 56 in 2016.
Due to a grave misconduct case that stemmed from an earlier gun-toting incident in 2006, he was dismissed from service but police records showed that the dismissal order only came in 2018. This led to the forfeiture of his benefits retroactively.
When the PRBS received the dismissal order, it no longer activated his monthly pension that was supposed to start in 2019, Rabaya said.
Rabaya added that a formal demand letter was being prepared to request Gonzales to return his separation benefits and if he failed to do so, the PNP will be taking legal action against him.
Gonzales was put in a controversy after he was identified in a viral road rage video as the motorist who smacked a cyclist on the head and pulled out a gun at him on Aug. 8 in Quezon City.
The PNP revoked his license after the video made rounds online.
The Land Transportation Office also issued a 90-day preventive suspension on Gonzales’ driver’s license.