Biaño challenges Mayor Cortes

ACCOMPANIED by hundreds of supporters, Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes, Vice Mayor Glen Bercede and seven incumbent councilors filed their certificates of candidacy (COC) yesterday morning.

A few minutes before the filing’s deadline, former City councilor Victor Biaño and his candidates for vice mayor and councilors also filed their COCs.

After hearing a mass at the National Shrine of St. Joseph, Mayor Cortes’s slate and their supporters marched to the office of Commission on Elections (Comelec) at the back of the City Sports and Cultural Complex.

The Liberal Party candidates, except Councilor Nenita Layese, who filed her COC last Tuesday, handed in their COCs past 10 a.m.

Cortes, in a press conference after the filing, said he will prioritize schools, drainage and roads if he gets elected for his last term.

He said business confidence in the city increased during his administration.

Democracy

Biaño said he decided to run for mayor because nobody else wanted to run against Mayor Cortes.

“We want to keep democracy alive and vibrant in Mandaue,” he told Sun.Star Cebu.

But Biaño, a member of the Board of Trustees of the old Mandaue City College (MCC), lamented Mayor Cortes’s failure to resolve the problem of having two city colleges.

Two MCCs operate in the city. The one recognized by the City is located at the back of the City Sports and Cultural Complex; the other MCC, which Biaño is a part of, is run by Dr. Paulus Cañete.

“The MCC problem is not a legal problem. It is political problem that needs a political solution, which is to replace the mayor,” said Biaño, who ran against Rep. Luigi Quisumbing (Cebu, sixth district) in 2010 but lost.

Biaño, his vice mayoral candidate Benjamin Luage and five candidates for councilors are running under the Bagong Bayan-Volunteer for a New Philippines.

Support

In the press conference, Cortes reiterated that he is supporting Quisumbing’s candidacy. Quisumbing will face former congresswoman Nerissa Soon-Ruiz next year.

Cortes said there was no discussion about politics when he hired Ruiz as a City consultant on health a few months ago.

The mayor also said he will continue to push for the creation of a lone district in Mandaue.

He said the City will receive more projects if the City becomes a lone district.

Cortes said he and other City officials will convince whoever gets the sixth district congressional seat to lobby for the creation of the lone district.