CONSOLACION Mayor Teresa Alegado believes the transformation of Mandaue City into a lone congressional district will also benefit her town and Cordova.
Mandaue City and the municipalities of Cordova and Consolacion comprise the sixth district.
With Mandaue City out of the district, the two towns will split funds coming from the National Government, she said..
“Sa amo pud, makahimo na mi og dagkong proyekto kay additional man na (This means we can work on bigger projects because we have additional funds),” Alegado said.
President Rodrigo Duterte signed Republic Act (RA) 11257 last April 5, declaring Mandaue City as a lone district. The law was authored by Rep. Jonas Cortes (Cebu, 6th district), a candidate for mayor in Mandaue City in the midterm elections on Monday, May 13.
What will happen to candidates of the sixth congressional district of Cebu now that Mandaue City is a lone congressional district?
According to Acting Provincial Elections Supervisor Jerome Brillantes, his office will wait for the Commission on Elections en banc to issue a resolution providing the rules and regulations on the matter.
Pending the issuance of a resolution, Brillantes said they will push through with the conduct of the elections on Monday.
“If there’s no resolution issued by the Commission on that regard, the elections will continue. I will just wait for the resolution coming from the en banc,” he told reporters in an interview on Wednesday, May 8.
Alegado said Cebu deserves more seats in the House of Representatives.
“We are supposed to be entitled to more than 10 districts,” she said.
The province currently has 10 seats in the House—1st to 7th districts of Cebu, north and south districts of Cebu City and the lone district of Lapu-Lapu City, which was part of the sixth district until 2009.
Alegado said it would be beneficial to Cebu to create more congressional districts.
“Maayo man gyud buakon (It is better to break up the districts). Masilbihan nila ang (They can serve their) constituents in terms of their needs and in terms of projects coming from the National Government,” she said.
For his part, Cortes said Cebu only had seven districts during the governorship of Sergio Osmeña Sr. in 1907.
After 112 years, Cebu made little progress in terms of sending more representatives to the House.
“I think the ideal number is 14 to 15 districts. Para nako angay na kaayo (That would be fair enough for me)...For me, the more the better,” Cortes said.
Aside from signing RA 11257 into law, the President also signed RA 11273, which expands Eversley Childs Sanitarium and General Hospital’s bed capacity from 50 to 200.
The budget for the expansion is expected to be released in 2020, according to Cortes. (From FMD of SuperBalita Cebu, KAL, RTF)