REP. Nerissa Soon-Ruiz (Cebu Province, 6th district) has been named the administration party’s candidate for Mandaue City mayor, a claim disputed by the camp of Mayor Jonas Cortes.

Cortes’s brother, Ariston, said that what Ruiz’s camp has is the “wrong document” and that officials of Lakas-Kampi-CMD in Manila reportedly promised to correct the error in two days.

"The Manny Pacquiao Blog". Click here for stories and updates on the Filipino boxing champ.

Option

Should this not happen, Ariston said, Cortes will run as an independent candidate instead.

Ruiz will challenge Cortes’s leadership in the 2010 elections.

Ruiz’s chief of staff, Atty. Gonzalo Malig-on, said they just received an advance copy of the “authority (for Ruiz) to sign the nomination” of the candidates for vice mayor and 10 councilors under Lakas-Kampi.

Aside from the authority to nominate document, Malig-on said Ruiz also received the “official certificate of nomination as Mandaue City mayor.”

The documents were signed by party president Miguel Rene Dominguez and secretary general Francis Xavier Manglapus.

Malig-on said that Vice Mayor Carlo Pontico Fortuna will be Ruiz’s runningmate; her council slate will be announced during the local party One Cebu’s convention this Saturday.

Former Provincial Board member Gabriel Luis Quisumbing will run under Ruiz’s ticket as sixth district representative, said Malig-on.

With this, Ruiz’s camp urged Cortes to accept the party’s decision “with grace.”

But Ariston said that what Ruiz’s camp is claiming could not be possible since Ruiz’s husband, Interior and Local Government Undersecretary Lito Ruiz, is reported to join the Nacionalista Party in his bid to become Lapu-Lapu City mayor.

Ariston also insisted that they received calls from Lakas-Kampi party officials, whom he refused to identify, telling them that they sent the wrong document to Ruiz.

Ariston said Lakas-Kampi officials advised Mayor Cortes to hold on because they will reportedly withdraw that document.

But if they fail to get Lakas’s blessing, Ariston said Jonas will be supported by a group called “Padayon Mandaue.”

The movement reportedly has 5,000 volunteers and goes by the motto, “If right keep it right, if wrong, set it right.”