President BS Aquino has emphasized so many times that his administration will run after corrupt officials even if they are his party mates, benefactors or friends . In line with that thrust, he bragged that with the appointment of lawyer Grace Pulido Tan as Commission on Audit (CoA) chairman and Conchita Carpio Morales  as Ombudsman, there is no reason his daang matuwid and pag walang kurap, walang mahirap program will fail.
Several residents and civic organizations of the City of Guihulngan has written this column to ask the help of media by calling the attention of the CoA and the Ombudsman. They wanted to test if the two offices are indeed responsive to  their task of fighting graft and corruption in government especially the local government units.
The request stemmed from the continued and unabated corruption perpetrated by certain  officials of the City of Guihulngan. Sources say Mayor Ernesto Reyes authorized the disbursement of an amount of P2,300,000 without the authority of the Sangguniang Panglungsod to purchase G.I.Sheets and various sizes of nails. The local residents allegedly decried the wasteful use of city resources and suspected that possibly a large amount of said funds may have gone to the pockets of certain officials. The residents questioned why so large an amount was used to purchase G.I Sheets and several sizes of nails.  And why should it be bought in Cebu City at Federal Hardware located at T. Padilla Street when there are so many hardware or construction supplies stores right in Guihulngan City or within the province of Negros Oreintal? Buying the goods from Cebu City will be too costly as they will incur so much in transportation costs and also time consuming due to the distance involved.
The source further said that the purchase was made without the benefit of a bidding as required by Republic Act 9184 otherwise known as the New Procurement Law. Secondly, according to one of the city personnel who accompanied the transport of the goods and supplies and saw personally the conditions of the  goods when  delivered to the City Hall,  the said goods were of inferior quality.
In particular, the G.I. Sheets, sources said, when a small bird flies over they easily bend due to thinness of the  product, meaning that it was of very inferior quality and for sure highly overpriced. The purchase was allegedly highly irregular and questionable because the person who personally made the purchase was the chief accountant of the city government, Jenjen Seno and not the authorized purchaser of the city government. Definitely a conflict of interest exists in such a situation. And also during the pick up of the goods at Federal Hardware, the source said that, one personnel, Calvin Ricablanca was reluctant to sign the documents and receive the goods as he detected that something was wrong with the purchase and saw the inferior quality of the goods.
However, he eventually succumbed to the pressure as they are so afraid of Reyes who easily gets mad and threatens them with dismissal from service. As to why the resident auditor for the city of the CoA, Mrs. Bulos was not doing anything on this transaction is something that Chairman Pulido Tan. should investigate immediately.
When I visited Guihulngan City a few days back, many residents approached and told me that during the construction of a gas station, casual employees of the city government were the ones doing the construction work of the gas station. They were more than willing to testify of that fact if the Ombudsman or CoA conducts an investigation.
What is highly questionable if indeed Reyes is the real owner of the gas station that is located on his real property at Restituto Villegas Street is the fact that all gasoline and diesel used by the city government are purchased at this subject gas station. In fact majority of the city folks are saying that there is a serious conflict of interest in this.
There is also the questionable hiring of so many casual employees which is mainly for political reasons. According to our source, so many casual employees are not even doing work but are just paid because they are political leaders or children and relatives of political leaders of Reyes. The hiring of these casuals have prejudiced the regular employees and the contractuals as their salaries have been delayed already for more than a month.
There is, indeed, enough reason for the Ombudsman and the CoA to investigate the transactions of the city government of Guihulngan city especially the one involving Reyes.
In behalf of those who continue to suffer and endure the graft and corruption as well as the deprivation of their rightful share of the wealth deprived from them by these heartless city officials, we say please to the Chairman Grace Pulido Tan and Madame Conchita Carpio Morales to do their share in making the road straight to heaven and not to hell.