SUV owner in Mandaluyong hit-and-run a no-show at LTO hearing

The owner of the SUV involved in a hit-and-run incident in Mandaluyong City did not show up during the hearing set by the Land Transportation Office on Tuesday.

“Hindi sya dumating! (He did not show up!)" LTO chief Assistant Secretary Edgar Galvante told GMA News Online.

The LTO is set to issue a final show cause order to the SUV owner, according to a tweet of Super Radyo dzBB reporter Glen Juego.

On Sunday, the said SUV hit a guard who was directing traffic at the corner of Julia Vargas Avenue and St. Francis Street in Mandaluyong City. The guard, identified as Christian Joseph Floralde, was trying to stop the SUV at an intersection.

In a dashcam footage, Floralde was seen stopping a white SUV but was instead hit by the vehicle. Instead of the helping the fallen victim, the SUV driver ran over him and escaped.

Floralde is currently in the intensive care unit of a hospital for medical treatment.

Philippine National Police director for operations Police Major General Valeriano de Leon on Monday confirmed that the SUV owner has sent  surrender feelers to authorities.

Mandaluyong City Police chief Police Colonel Gauvin Mel Unos on Tuesday said a complaint for frustrated murder and abandonment of one's own victim has already been filed against the SUV owner.

LTO-National Capital Region director Clarence Guinto said the license of the SUV driver may also be revoked if proven unfit to hold one.

The driver's license of the suspect has already been suspended for 90 days as preventive action.

Guinto said the LTO assumes that the registered owner of the concerned vehicle is also the driver in the hit-and-run incident.

The SUV owner reportedly claimed that it was their child who was driving the vehicle during the incident. —KG, GMA News