By Mae Singuay

Two regular employees of the Bacolod City government were under 60-day preventive suspension for alleged gross misconduct.

City Legal Office head Romeo Carlos Ting, Jr. said the names of the employees are being withheld while the case is ongoing.

The employees, assigned as building inspectors at the Office of the Building Official (OBO), allegedly demanded P5,000 from clients to expedite the release of OBO clearance last January 11.

Ting said the hearing officer in the administrative proceedings would be himself.

“There will be a prosecuting attorney, but they will have an option if they want to be presented by a lawyer,” he explained.

Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez said the preventive suspension is their chance to refute.

“But as I’ve said, we will file charges because of certain evidence,” Benitez said.

“We will be unrelenting in our drive for anti-corruption. These are the things we will never tolerate,” he added.

Benitez said if they require suspending this mess, then so be it.

“Indi man pwede pabay-an ta lang sila nga waay ‘ta may mahimo,” Benitez said./MS, WDJ