Friday, August 03, 2007 Wenceslao: Viable, cheaper option in Cordova issue By Bong O. Wenceslao Candid Thoughts
CORDOVA Mayor Adelino Sitoy is not a neophyte in politics, although he was out of it for years, leaving the reins of the family turf to his son Arleigh. It is thus not difficult to believe Rep. Nerissa Soon-Ruiz’s claim that Sitoy’s push for Cordova to become part of Cebu City does not stem from things altruistic. He wants to be congressman, she said.
Here’s the take. A seventh congressional district as proposed by Soon Ruiz will only include Lapu-Lapu City and Cordova.
Sitoy will be disadvantaged in such a setup if he runs for Congress considering Lapu-Lapu’s overwhelming advantage especially in the number of voters. It will thus be most likely for Lapu-Lapu politicians to rule the district.
Cordova becoming part of Cebu City is a different thing because that would mean increasing the number of congressional districts in the city from the present two to three. Cordova will most probably become a separate district that will be entitled to one House representative. Sitoy has better chances of winning a congressional election in this setup.
Unlike Soon-Ruiz, who has become Sitoy’s political “enemy” after the latter shifted his support in the last elections to Luigi Quisumbing, I am willing to give the Cordova mayor the benefit of the doubt. This even if I think that no well-intentioned political leader would want to wipe out an area’s legacy of town-hood just like that.
In his letter to Sun.Star published last July 31, Sitoy clarified that becoming part of Cebu City “is our last resort if we get lost in the rigmarole of district disfigurement.” That is the more acceptable stand. The reason for deconstructing a town should outweigh the significance of the efforts of past leaders for Cordova to achieve its present status.
The last time I looked, Sitoy is now open to a proposal, though a long shot, for Cordova to retain its town-hood and be part instead of another district that will include Consolacion and a suggested Olango town. I say this is a long shot because much is still to be done in realizing the often raised Olango-as-town plan. That could take years.
Anyway, I find Sitoy’s arguments for choosing Cebu City as the preferred local government unit for Cordova to attach to rather lame. The number of Cordovanhons working in Cebu City could not overcome the fact that Cordova is naturally part of Mactan Island. Where that island goes, so too Cordova. It has been like that for centuries.
The other plans supposedly to strengthen Cordova’s connection with Cebu City, like constructing a bridge, are in the end artificial. Or more aptly, forced. Why spend billions of pesos just to attach politically a portion of Mactan Island to Cebu City when upholding the integrity of the island is the better, more viable and cheaper option?
CUENCO. Reader Jojo Sombilon e-mailed to me this reaction to my column titled “Napakasakit Kuya Tony” that tackled Rep. Antonio Cuenco’s act of nominating Jose de Venecia for House Speaker even if Rep. Pablo Garcia was also angling for the post:
“I had high regards for Tony Cuenco from the Martial Law to the Charter change years. But after what he did to a fellow Cebuano, I would say he is actually just plain trapo. Like the Senate, the House needs not only to reform but to reinvent. That can’t be done under JDV.”
