Mandaue to ask House to act on bill
MANDAUE City barangay captains will ask the House of Representatives
to act on the City's lone district bid after Lapu-Lapu City's move
reached the Senate even if it only gained its highly urbanized status
recently.
Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes blamed Rep. Nerissa Soon-Ruiz (Cebu
Province, 6th district) for not working on Mandaue City's bill, but
acted swiftly on Lapu-Lapu City's.
Ruiz's chief of staff denied the allegation.
Cortes said 24 out of 27 barangay captains will ask the House to act
on the bill. He said they will also ask Ruiz to explain why she opted
to work on Lapu-Lapu City's lone district bid and left Mandaue's bill
to "gather dust."
He said Mandaue City's 318,575 residents could have "solely" enjoyed
the P630 million worth of Ruiz's Philippine
Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) for three terms had it become a
lone district, assuming that the P70 million per year PDAF remains the
same for nine years.
Representation
Mandaue shares Ruiz's PDAF with Consolacion, Cordova and Lapu-Lapu City.
Cortes asked Ruiz where her love for the Mandauehanons is.
"We are not only underrepresented, we are misrepresented," Cortes said.
But Atty. Gonzalo Malig-on, Ruiz's chief of staff, said this is not true.
He said that the present move, to make Lapu-Lapu City a lone district,
is just an off-shoot of the original bill, which is favorable to
Mandaue City.
He said Mandaue's unique charter character, similar to Consolacion's
and Cordova's town where residents can vote for provincial officials,
makes it more realistic to lump the city with the two other towns as
one district and Lapu-Lapu City as another district.
If they petition the House for Mandaue City's lone district bid they
will support the move, said Malig-on.
Municipalities
"But what will happen to Cordova and Consolacion? Will the House allow
the two to stand as a district when other congressmen in some parts of
the country are holding 15 municipalities in their district?" Malig-on
said.
He said that there is a need for a redistricting in Cebu, but some
congressmen are not ready for that.
Initially, the plan was for a lone district each for Lapu-Lapu and
Mandaue cities plus another district composed of Consolacion, Cordova
and two other towns in the fifth fistrict. But the Duranos refused to
part with some of their towns, said Malig-on.
He said some congressmen are not comfortable redistricting Cebu as the
move entails additional campaign expenses, redistribution of district
resources and organizing new political leaders and letting go of good
leaders.
He said Ruiz planned to divide her district but it ended up that way,
as some congressmen feel this is more realistic and fitting to each of
local government units' special character.
He said the present arrangement is an offshoot of an original bill
grouping together Lapu-Lapu City and Cordova town as one district;
Mandaue City and Consolacion town as another district. (OCP)