AN AFFIDAVIT executed by architect Rey Galua supporting the allegations of corruption against slain university president Dr. Ricardo Rotoras and other university officials surfaced on Thursday, January 18.
The affidavit, dated February 16, 2017 or about a month after work was halted on a P200 million project at the University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines (USTP), supported many of the allegations made by Engineer Selwyn Lao against the late university president and some university officials.
Lao is the president of Wing-An Construction and Development Corporation, the contractor of the 8-storey Student Center and Education Complex worth P199,590,570.07.
Work at the project was stopped by university officials last January 10, 2017.
The affidavit was executed by Galua in support of Lao’s legal and administrative cases against Rotoras and at least one other university official, lawyer Jonathan Oche, USTP’s vice president for administration and legal affairs.
In the affidavit, Galua admitted he had acted as an ‘emissary’ of Rotoras supposedly in the latter’s projects at the USTP.
Galua claimed he was forced to resign from USTP after Rotoras suspected that he had ‘personal involvement’ in the project being awarded to Wing-An.
Galua claimed that on November 2015, just before the bidding for the eight-storey Student Center and Education Complex started, Rotoras told him that the project must only be awarded to UKC Builders Incorporated (UKC).
He said the subsequent public bidding was conducted without the disclosure of the winning bidder or recipient of the project, which was UKC.
But Galua said UKC could not participate in the bidding due to restrictions under the terms of reference as prescribed in the bidding rules--that contractors must have experience in bored piling works.
"That sometime on 1st quarter of 2016, Dr. Rotoras called me and told me, to let Wing-An commence the bored piling works and later on oust him in the project. The latter added saying, 'Dapat ang mo trabaho sa project si UKC ra'," Galua said
Galua said Rotoras instructed Lao to start the 100 percent pile test and to shoulder all the costs, in a supposed effort to anger Lao and cause the latter to abandon the project.
But Galua said Rotoras failed to anticipate that Lao would agree to shouldering the cost of the added work.
Galua said an angry Rotoras subsequently confronted him regarding the outcome of the meeting.
"On April 30, 2016, a meeting was held in Dr. Rotoras' office, and told me 'You did not tell me the truth. WHy you did not tell me the real score, why did you use the board pile, this contractor participated because of you'," Galua claimed.
Galua claimed to have gotten another set of instructions from Rotoras in mid of 2016 to approach Lao and ask him if he wants to continue the project and to supposedly ask for "10 percent SOP."
"Verily I negotiated and explained to Engr. Lao, the procedure of 10%, it was the prescribed asking rate maintained by Dr. Rotoras and the Board of Regents. When Engr. Lao insisted to lower the asking to 2%-3%-4%, I told Dr. Rotoras on Engr. Lao's resistance, and he told me 'to destroy Wing-An make him difficult in all accomplishments and billings, I want him to be totally abolished here in MUST'," Galua related in his affidavit.
Galua said he was eventually forced to resign from USTP after Rotoras supposedly suspected him of having a ‘personal involvement’ of the project awarded to Wing-An.
Meanwhile, Galua’s legal counsel yesterday, January 18, said police still has no evidence that would link his client to the murder last year of university president Dr. Ricardo Rotoras.
Lawyer Arturo Ubaub, speaking in behalf of Galua who remains under hospital arrest for a heart condition, said the burden of proof is with the police.
Ubaub said even though police can press charges against Galua in relation to the Rotoras murder case, any case against his client would be weak if no gunman is arrested.
“We will answer in the meantime the illegal possession of firearms and explosives charges, and we are consistent in our position that it was planted," Ubaub said.
Galua has been identified as one of the four "persons of interest" who may have knowledge of the December 2, 2017 murder of Rotoras.
Authorities, though, have clarified that he is not yet a suspect but a person whom investigators could use to get leads for the speedy solution of the case.
Galua was arrested by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-Cagayan de Oro City (CIDG-CDOC) after his house yielded unlicensed guns and explosives earlier this month.