[] Scrolling down: read about a rumored rift within the Quisumbing family; why Representative Jonas Cortes wants to be mayor again, the "string of puzzlements" that Mandaue City Mayor Luigi Quisumbing saw from the Cortes camp
THOSE were the legislators from Cebu who signed the resolution seeking the eviction of Pantaleon Alvarez, meaning the rest of the pack stuck it out with the House leader, a source told Bzzzzz. The "coup" participants from Cebu were Representatives Raul del Mar of Cebu city north, Bebot Abellanosa of Cebu City south, and Ramon "Red" Durano VI of Cebu's fifth district.
Mediation talks led by President Rodrigo Duterte in a waiting room Monday, July 23, resulted in a compromise of status quo until after the Sona: Alvarez still sat at the podium as House speaker. The oath-taking was deemed not officially held but the eviction of Alvarez was a "done deal."
It was not just coincidence that the sound system at the joint session of Congress to hear President Duterte's State of the Nation Address went kaput just as the new speaker, Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, was about to take her oath. Neither was it coincidental that the mace, the symbol of authority of the House, disappeared.
The sound system, which must have been tested and re-tested weeks and the day before the important affair, disabled GMA or anyone else from speaking.
The mace is mostly ceremonial but traditionally no session of the House, or the Senate, is ever held without it. But it was the leadership stalemate, of course, that snagged the Sona, delaying it for almost an hour.
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Was it wrong timing?
Had it been pulled off without a hitch, the change of leadership would've been perfect: a new speaker right at the start of the new Congress.
The snags, however, turned it into a spectacle: part drama, part absurdity. The Sona was delayed for about an hour. It had not happened before, not in recent memory.
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Family 'quarrel'
Don't call it a rift, maybe a spat, within the Quisumbing family: clan patriarch NQ (Norberto Quisumbing Sr., Mandaue City Mayor Luigi's grandpa) was said to be pissed off by Mayor Luigi's closure of a business establishment and a sister is supposed to have beef with the former-congressman-now-mayor.
Would that be a reason for a divided camp in 2019 when Mayor Luigi would seek reelection? Blood is thicker than water although veteran watchers say that it is often diluted a lot when it comes to politics.
Maybe so. But probably not the reason Representative Jonas Cortes will drop his congressional seat and bid to return to City Hall.
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Jonas didn't fit in
A City Hall watcher said that maybe Jonas has not been comfortable with his present work as legislator. He must have found his previous stint as mayor (three terms: from 2007-2016) more suitable for his skills and interests.
His first term in Congress has also not been eventful. What have the people heard or read about what he has done in the House? His pet bill, which would make Mandaue a lone congressional district and then congressman Luigi said was already in Jonas's hands, has still to be approved and signed into law.
Serving as mayor would be more his forte. The unknown factor is whether he could repeat his feat in 2007 when he snapped the two-decade rule of the Ouanos by beating Jonkee Ouano who would've continued the dynastic thread, from grandfather to father to son.
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Other reasons
There may be other reasons, some of which would be expectedly unsavory, to be raised most likely by Cortes opponents and critics.
One of them is the earlier rumor that the Jonas camp left some skeletons in City Hall closets, for which he might not be held responsible might still look bad for him during the election season.
Those could provide ammunition to block-time radio programs that would, given the heat of the 2016 campaign, be more intense this time.
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'String of puzzlements'
Mayor Luigi already announced his intention to run for a second term. Congressman Jonas still has not disclosed his plan, although during his birthday last July 20 when he turned 52, many best wishes for "the next Mandaue City mayor" were heard.
Was Jonas invited to his party? Have the two politicians even talked with each other since the May 8 barangay elections, when Jonas fielded his own candidates against Luigi's bets, and last June 24, when the congressman held a mass oath-taking for his elected barangay and SK or youth officials?
Mayor Luigi called them a "basket of puzzling developments," a term that's now in the category of "basket of deplorables and misfits" in the government, people who were fired or left but were soon recycled and returned to the basket.
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