Galua uses PDP oath-taking, meeting with Koko vs CIDG

By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent

THE lawyer of arrested architect Rey Galua has accused the chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group here of fabricating a story against his client so a court in Gingoog would issue a search warrant against his client.

Lawyer Arturo Ubaub said Galua’s act of taking his oath as a PDP-Laban member before Senate President Aquilino Martin Pimentel III and a plane ticket in December 2017 would show that the CIDG lied in a sworn statement.

Galua, a “prime person of interest” in the investigation into the murder of University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines president Dr. Ricardo Rotoras in Dec. 2, 2017, has been charged with illegal arms and explosives possession in court.

Ubaub has filed a petition to ask the Department of Justice to review the resolution of the City Prosecutor Charisse Galarita-Bitoon.

In a 90-page petition to Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre, Ubaub stated that Judge Mirabeaus Undalok of the Regional Trial Court Branch 43 in Gingoog City issued a search warrant based on an allegedly “fabricated” story by CIDG regional director Supt. Melgas Devaras.

In December, CIDG applied for a search warrant from Judge Undalok. In his sworn statement, Devaras said SPO4 Noel Oclarit, SPO3 Ricardo Ratilla, and himself met with Galua at the Pueblo de Oro golf course on Dec. 7, 2017.

Ubaub said Devaras stated in the affidavit that Galua invited them for coffee to his home in Pueblo de Oro where the architect supposedly showed the officers his M16, M14 rifles and a grenade.

Ubaub said the CIDG had failed to secure a search warrant and so, Oclarit and Ratilla was sent back to Judge Undalok on Dec. 12, 2017 to seek one, using the same story that Devaras narrated in his original affidavit.

But Ubaub said the CIDG officers could not have met Galua in Dec. 7 since he was in Marikina City that day where he took his oath as a PDP-Laban member before Senate President Pimentel who is also the administration party’s president.

“Misrepresentation ang gisulti sa CIDG didto ni Judge Undalok nga kuno nagkaila sila ni Galua sa golf course sa Pueblo de Oro niadtong Dec. 7 kay nianang  adlawa, tua man si Galua sa Manila, nag-take oath sa PDP-Laban,” Ubaub said.

Ubaub has attached Galua’s plane ticket (Cebu Pacific Plain Ticket  S9TPNF) from Butuan City to Manila on Dec. 7 as evidence in his petition for review.