Fabros unhappy as LTO lets Carabuena keep license

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) on Sunday said the Land Transportation Office (LTO) was sending the wrong message to motorists by not revoking Robert Blair Carabuena’s driving license.

According to MMDA Traffic Discipline Office head Yves  Gonzales, the move may give motorists the idea that it was okay to hurt traffic enforcers.

Earlier, the LTO turned down the agency’s request to revoke the driver’s license of Carabuena as it pointed out that disregarding traffic signs and enforcers was not a valid ground for doing so.

The ruling has prompted the MMDA to file a motion for reconsideration.

Carabuena was slapped with a complaint after he physically and verbally attacked MMDA traffic enforcer Saturnino Fabros on Aug. 11 last year. This was after Fabros struck the hood of Carabuena’s Volvo sedan when the tobacco firm executive ignored his order to stop his vehicle and went on to cross a busy intersection.

Fabros, who was interviewed on radio yesterday, said he was disheartened by the news. “I don’t want anyone to experience the abuse that I was subjected to,” he added.

In a statement, MMDA Chair Francis Tolentino said that Carabuena’s action “was not

only a crime but a clear and blatant disregard for authority.”

“People like him with that kind of temper and behavior should not be allowed to drive on our roads because he is a danger not only to our enforcers but to other motorists as well,”  Tolentino said.

Assistant general manager for operations Emerson Carlos, meanwhile, reiterated that “driving was a privilege, not a right.”

At the same time, he urged the agency’s traffic enforcers to keep doing their jobs and not let themselves be affected by the LTO’s decision.

Though Carabuena has kept his driver’s license, he will still

be arraigned on direct assault charges on Feb. 7 at the Quezon City Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 42 after the court rejected his motion for a reinvestigation of the case filed against him.