THE person of interest in the murder of university president Dr. Ricardo Rotoras, has asked the court for temporary liberty while facing the illegal possession of firearms and explosives charges.
Laywer Art Ubaub said architect Rey Galua has also hired another lawyer, Armando Kho, who filed the petition for bail last June 15.
“We filed a petition for bail kay akong kliyente nagreklamo kay dugay na sya didto sa prisohan (my client was complaining that he has stayed long inside the prison),” Ubaub said.
Galua has been in jail since February this year. He was jailed after police found a cache of firearms and grenades during a raid in his house last January 9.
The petition was filed at the Regional Trial Court Branch 24.
“The hearing was held early this month but Judge Damasing has yet to decide on it. Under the law, if the accused filed a bail petition, the court, if possible, should hear the petition everyday because this petition means the accused does not want to languish in jail, so there is urgency,” Ubaub said.
Ubaub also lamented that during the hearing, the prosecutors failed to present the officers of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) who were present in the raid.
“Ang fiscal unta dili tong mga bukot bukot na CIDG ang ibutang, kadto gyud untang nangayo ug search warrant, si Oclarit ug Devaraz, kay ako sila iconfront about their December 7affidavit nga nag-ingon nga ila kuno naengkwentro akong kliyente sa pueblo, nga wala man kay toa man sa Manila,(We were hoping for the fiscal to present Oclarit and Devaraz, since they were the once who requested for the search warrant so that I can question their affidavit which states they have encountered my client on December 7, because my client was in Manila at that time.” he added.
But Ubaub said they are confident that the court will grant their petition for bail.
“We have higher chances that it will be grabted because when they applied for search warrant, it was based on fictitious evidence, if only they told the truth why they applied, the court in Gingoog will not have issued that search warrant,” he said.
Galua's camp is also preparing for a hearing at the Professional Regulatory Commission (PRC) regarding the University of Science and Technogy of Southern Philippines' (USTP) petition to revoke Galua's license and registration.
Galua, who used to work at the USTP, has been identified by the police as a “prime person of interest” in the Dec. 2, 2017 shooting that killed USTP president Dr. Ricardo Rotoras in uptown Cagayan de Oro.
Galua was arrested on January 9, but managed to evade jail for 35 days by having himself confined in a hospital for a heart ailment.