Return P.5 million pension, gun-toting ex-cop told

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police wants Wilfredo Gonzales, the dismissed PNP officer involved in a road rage incident with a cyclist in Quezon City, to return P588,000 in overpaid pension benefits.

At a press briefing at Camp Crame yesterday, PNP Retirement and Benefits Administration Service (PRBS) director Brig. Gen. Niño David Rabaya said Gonzales has yet to return P588,000 in separation benefits.

“We are taking actions for the recovery of the overpayment of his pension,” Rabaya told reporters.

He said demand letters requesting the return of the pension funds have been sent to Gonzales since 2019.

The gun-toting Gonzales physically and verbally attacked a cyclist during a traffic altercation in Quezon City on Aug. 8.

In 2018, Gonzales was dismissed from the police service due to an administrative complaint involving grave misconduct in 2006. Before the case was resolved, he was able to collect retirement benefits from the PNP for around two years.

According to Rabaya, Gonzales received a lump sum of his pension from 2016 to 2019. He stopped receiving his monthly pension in 2019 after the PRBS received the dismissal order.

“We will be taking civil action against him if he refuses to return the funds,” the PNP official said.

The Land Transportation Office (LTO) is keen on suspending the driver’s license of Gonzales.

“If there is no justifiable reason for him to have drawn his firearm, then his driver’s license would most probably be suspended,” LTO chief Rigor Mendoza II said.

Gonzales snubbed the LTO’s summons and only sent his son.