EMMARIE "Lolypop" Ouano-Dizon, former Mandaue City councilor, has been scanning the political landscape for the next local election.

She ran for Mandaue mayor under One Cebu Party in 2016 but lost to Luigi Quisumbing with 43.2 percent (65,055 votes) against Luigi's 56.8 percent (85,433 votes). With Representative Jonas Cortes and Quisumbing both reportedly eyeing the mayor's office, the sixth district House seat looks easier to take.

Lolypop was sighted meeting separately with mayors of the district (comprising Consolacion, Mandaue, Corvova). She has not limited her groundwork to her city, a City Hall watcher notes.

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'Call me Hon. Ouano-Dizon'

Lolypop still counts on her Mandaue base where the Ouanos ruled for more than two decades. Her dad Thadeo "Teddy" Ouano and her grandfather Alfredo "Pedong" Ouano served as city mayor, one after the other, Pedong from 1988 to 1998; then Teddy 1998 2007, or a total of 19 years, not counting the patriarch's term as vice mayor before he became mayor. Jonas Cortes cut off the Ouano control of Mandaue City Hall by defeating Jonkee Ouano, Lolypop's brother, in 2007.

Teddy in 2010 started his stint as Cebu Provincial Board member (two terms until his death in 2016 at 72). Her brother Jonkee occupies the same seat in the PB board. And another brother, Alfie, is a Consolacion councilor. To honor her family descendants and protect her Mandaue base, in 2015 she stood in the City Council to correct those who who address her as "Mrs. Dizon." "Call me Honorable Ouano-Dizon," she said.

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Huge Mandaue vote

Lolypop will find her Mandaue base useful with its 189,712 voters, against Consolacion's 73,893 and Cordova's 34,273 (all 2016 figures). Her chunk of the Mandaue votes would depend on who her opponent would be in the sixth district race.

And she is with the ruling party. Like most of her One Cebu colleagues, she defected to PDP-Laban in one of the two massive political migrations in Cebu: in August 2016 (300) and November 2017 (50,000, including guests and spectators).

Her husband Nixon "Jojo" Dizon leads the Cebu province chapter of PDP-Laban.

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On whose wagon?

When asked if she'd align with Mayor Luigi or Congressman Jonas, Lolypop did not say. "Too early" is stock answer among politicians.

She was crushed in 2016 by both Luigi and Jonas who, she must have felt, ganged up on her. But then she also threw mud at them, more intensely at Quisumbing who was her rival for the mayor's seat. Tape records of what their respective broadcast drumbeaters said during the campaign would show the fierceness of the fight.

There's that "politics makes strange bedfellows" cliché but the major factor in Lolypop's, or any other politico's, choice of wagon to ride in, would be, "Who could help me win?"

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