By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent
ARRESTED architect Rey Galua left the faculty of the state-owned University of Science of Technology of the Philippines a month before the school stopped an over P200-million building construction project in the campus.
USTP officials yesterday declined to give details but confirmed that the University stopped the building construction and terminated the contract two months before the project’s expected date of completion.
They also confirmed that the architect worked as a faculty member of the university for over a decade until late 2016.
On Tuesday, the Criminal Investigation and Detection group led other law enforcement groups in raiding the Pueblo de Oro house of Galua where they found an arms cache that included grenades.
The officers arrested Galua whom, a CIDG official, said is “one of the persons of interest” in the ongoing investigation into the December 2017 shooting death of USTP president Ricardo Rotoras. Law enforcement groups don’t see “persons of interest” as suspects.
“Dili nako madetalyi ang rason pero naundang ang kontrata, na-terminate ang contract,” said USTP vice president for administration and legal affairs Jonathan Oche of the multinillion-peso building construction contract.
USTP spokesperson-designate Annloreine Sitoy said Galua was behind the architectural design of the unfinished twin four-story Student Center and Education Complex Building, the contract of which had been awarded to the San Juan-based Wing An Construction and Development Corp..
The project was stopped in January 2017, a month after Galua’s 15-year employment in the state-owned university ended.
Sitoy confirmed that the construction project was stopped in January 2017 but she could not say the reason for that decision. She claimed she was not privy to the details.
The project was started in January 2016 and was supposed to have been completed in March 2017. It was stopped about two months before the expected date of completion.
USTP, according to Oche, is bent on resuming the construction of the building this year.
Sitoy said Galua worked on the design of the unfinished building at a time when he was serving as a USTP faculty member.
Galua was the chairman of USTP’s Department of Architecture until December 2016 when he left the school.
Sitoy said she was also not privy to the details about the termination of Galua’s employment.
Atty. Oche declined to disclose details about Galua’s employment. He called the employment termination “separation.”
“Dili sa ko maka-comment bahin ana. Basta kay separate na siya (Galua) from the service” in December 2016, said Oche.
He said Galua left with no case being filed against the architect by the USTP or by its then president, the late Dr. Rotoras, vice versa.
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