THE bill converting Mandaue City into a lone district may have been approved on second reading, it still needs a Senate version to pass Congress’ scrutiny, an official said Wednesday, Nov. 28.

Mandaue City Mayor Luigi Quisumbing welcomes House Bill 8511 but says it still has a long way to go before it becomes a law.

HB 8511, which seeks to separate Mandaue City from the Sixth District of Cebu, is authored by Cebu Rep. Jonas Cortes (Cebu, 6th).

“I’m glad we still qualify as a lone district after all the anomalous land deals of the previous administration. Maayo na lang naay nahibilin pa nga yuta para ma-classify ta,” Quisumbing said in a text message.

Quisumbing and Cortes are facing each other for the city’s mayoral seat in next year’s midterm elections.

Lawyer James Calipayan, Cortes’s chief of staff, said HB 8511 will undergo deliberation next week to determine if should be approved on third and final reading.

Calipayan said that if Mandaue City will be converted into a lone district, it will not only get its own representative, but will also get its own appropriation from the national government for projects and services that will benefit its constituents.

If Mandaue leaves the Sixth District, its neighbors Cordova and Consolacion will reap the benefits as there would now be only two of them sharing the appropriations set aside by the national government for the sixth district, Calipayan said.

The camp of Cortes also said that HB 8511 will be approved on final reading before the House adjourns in April 2019.

Mandaue City, which is also known as the “Industrial Heartland of Cebu,” has a population of about 365,144 people based on an August 2015 census. (from FVQ of SuperBalita Cebu)