AMID controversies hounding the hiring of workers at the provincial government, Negros Occidental Provincial Administrator lawyer Rayfrando Diaz II said they "should be the one charged for hiring job order (JO) casuals."

Diaz, however, refused to elaborate his statement, saying that “there is no case yet.”

Criminal and administrative complaints were filed against Diaz and six other department heads of the province before the Office of the Deputy Ombudsman-Visayas over the hiring of 23 Bacolod City residents as job order casuals.

The provincial administrator earlier dismissed the complaint against them, saying it is purely “politically motivated and those complaints are untrue as those are only based on the imagination of the complainants who are being used for political purposes.”

Aside from Diaz, also charged for violation of Republic Act 3019, otherwise known as the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, were Provincial Budget Officer-in-charge Gemma Flores, Provincial Accountant Annabelle Magalona, Provincial Human Resource (HR) Officer-in-charge Felomina Gozon, Provincial Treasurer lawyer Amy Grace Bolivar, Merly Frio and Jade Miraflores, who are both from the HR Provincial Administrative Office.

The complaints were filed by Jonathan Buyco of Barangay Matab-ang in Talisay City and Lilibeth Carballo of Pag-asa Habitat Village in Barangay Jonobjonob, Escalante City, both in Negros Occidental.