Whether Gov. Erico Aumentado was in the line of a hostile or friendly fire in the current fracas over the purchase of a hydraulic backhoe largely depends on which side of the public's bread is buttered. If one is an incurable Aumentado supporter, then it is expected that he or she must see to it that his governor must be above the backhoe fray and therefore beyond the reach of the slings and arrows of critics. But if one is a diehard Aumentado critic, then the most that Aumentado can expect is that he is only liable under the principle of command responsibility.

There is no denying that some of the governor's trusted lieutenants were trying to put one over him when they succeeded in buying the heavy equipment at an estimated overprice of more than P2 million. Now that the cat is out of the bag, some neutral observers are edging the governor to make heads roll especially in the General Services Office if only to isolate him from a possible fallout from the anomalous transaction. According to these observers, the governor has to make some sacrificial lambs in the altar of transparency lest he be sprayed with some of the mud generated out of the backhoe deal.

The controversy over the purchase of a back hoe by the provincial government became a hot media topic the past week after it was discovered that the heavy equipment was bought at more than P9.7 million when it can be bought from the same supplier (the one who delivered the item) by only P6.3 million on installment basis and payable for a period of one year. Just in time, the governor directed the Bids and Award Committee to look into allegations of overprice in the transaction. He also assured the vigilant public that from hereon all financial transactions involving the GSO should pass through an internal audit unit to check if the prices quoted in the canvass are within the tolerable limits of the General Procurement Reform Act.