Hit-run driver snubs LTO anew

Both the police and the LTO have refused to publicly identify the owner of the SUV or the driver, or to say if the owner was also the driver involved in the incident.

The already identified but still unnamed driver of a sports utility vehicle (SUV) involved in a hit-and-run incident in Mandaluyong City snubbed anew on Friday a hearing set by the Land Transportation Office (LTO).

The LTO committee looking into the incident that resulted in the hospitalization of a security guard said it would already make a recommendation to Assistant Secretary Edgar Galvante.

Earlier, Galvante warned that if the SUV driver failed to show up again for the hearing on the final show cause order issued against him by the LTO, the agency would consider as waived his right to explain his side.

The Mandaluyong police said they have already filed charges of frustrated murder and abandonment of one’s victim against the driver of the SUV.

Both the police and the LTO, however, have refused to name the owner of the SUV or the driver or to say if the owner was also the driver involved in the incident.

One report said the owner’s son was the driver who ran over guard Christian Joseph Floralde last 5 June while the latter was directing traffic at the corner of Julia Vargas and St. Francis Street in Mandaluyong City.

Discharged from the hospital yesterday, Floralde said he would press charges against the driver who bumped him with his SUV and instead of stopping to help him drove over him once again and fled the scene.

On Tuesday, Mandaluyong City police chief P/Col. Gauvin Mel Unos said they were only waiting for an arrest warrant against the driver to apprehend him.

Investigators had been refused entry by guards in the village where the suspect is believed to be residing.

The LTO said it has suspended for 90 days the driver’s license of the respondent to its summons. With the respondent not showing up, the agency said it would already come up with a decision on the sanctions that may be imposed.