Wilfredo Gonzales, the dismissed cop whose appearance in a press conference called by Police Brig. Gen. Nicolas Torre III led to the latter's resignation as Quezon City Police District chief, has had a one-on-one interview with Anthony "Ka Tunying" Taberna.

Gonzales has been invited by the Senate to appear in its investigation of that 8 August incident which was caught on video showing him hitting and then cocking a gun on a cyclist.

Feeling the heat, the original poster of the video has since deleted it, maybe to his or her regret, as copies of the footage have been racking up thousands of views.

Senator Joseph Victor "JV" Ejercito said last week that, if need be, they'd issue a subpoena to Gonzales if he would not show up at the Senate. There should be no reason for Gonzales not to appear before the Senate, even if people deride congressional probes as circus events that rarely result in laws being passed.

Gonzales has appeared with Torre and now with Taberna, so it should be easier for him to talk about his version of the story — but this time under oath. Or it may be harder since he cannot deviate from what he has already said.

At any rate, Gonzales' own children have given him sound advice to speak his truth, and he should follow this tact to try and stem the public opinion against him. He, however, should steel himself as the lawmakers will not handle him with kid gloves but would challenge his narration at every turn.

As a dismissed policeman, Gonzales would get little sympathy from the senators, who have been skewering active-duty police officers over the Navotas shooting of 17-year-old Jemboy Baltazar and many other incidents highlighting police incompetence.

In that Ka Tunying interview prefaced and concluded with what we call in Philosophy 101 argumentum ad misericordia, or an appeal to pity or emotion, Gonzales painted himself as an old, sickly man who had just undergone an operation.

Narrating, supposedly from beginning to end, his encounter with the cyclist, Gonzales put across the point that, as a senior citizen with a heart ailment that would necessitate a bypass operation, he felt sufficiently threatened to draw and cock his gun.