By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent
ARCHITECT Rey Galua spent the night behind bars at the city jail in Lumbia for the first time since his Jan. 9 arrest after prison authorities forced him out of a government hospital on Tuesday night.
Galua, whose heart ailment gave him a good excuse to spend 35 days in hospital confinement, spent Valentine’s Day comfortless and with inmates yesterday.
His lawyer Arturo Ubaub confirmed that a group from the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology took Galua out of the Northern Mindanao Medical Center at around 7 pm on Tuesday night.
BJMP’s basis, according to Ubaub, was a physycian’s discharge order instead of an order from Judge Henry Damasing of the 24th branch of the Regional Trial Court.
Galua, who used to work in the stateun University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines, has been listed by the police as a “prime person of interest” in the Dec. 2, 2017 shooting death of USTP president Dr. Ricardo Rotoras in uptown Cagayan de Oro.
The architect was arrested when police found a cache of firearms and grenades during a raid in Jan. 9 or a little over a month later in his uptown Cagayan de Oro house.
Galua, a former subordinate of Dr. Rotoras, was fired from the USTP shortly before the university’s board of regents stopped the construction of a nearly P200-million building project which the architect designed. The board also terminated the USTP contract with the contractor, the San Juan-based Wing-an Construction and Development Corp..
Ubaub protested the BJMP’s move in bringing his client to the city jail even as he threatened to ask that they be cited in contempt of court.
“It was contemptuous,” said Ubaub even as he criticized BJMP personnel whom he didn’t identify except for one “Colonel Bikire.”
“Akong gi-ingnan tong ilang dako-dako sa BJMP nga dili lang usa nila dad-on si Galua sa Lumbia kay wala pay resolution ang akong gi-file nga motion sa korte, pero wala gyud mosugot,” he said.
Ubaub filed the motion for a court to allow Galua to continue receiving medical treatment in a hospital for a heart ailment after the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group brought him out of the Polymedic Plaza in Kauswagan to the Lumbia jail in Jan. 9. In the evening, Galua was rushed to the NMMC after he complained of chest pains.
Judge Damasing has yet to rule on Galua’s motion. He gave prosecutors and Ubaub 10 days from Feb. 7 to submit their respective memoranda pertaining to the motion and after hearing physicians give their medical opinions.
Ubaub said he was set on submitting his memorandum to the regional court today.
He said he was worried for his client, saying the architect could suffer a stroke in jail.
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