Mandaue City becoming a lone district will benefit Cordova and Consolacion

 MANDAUE CITY, Cebu — The passing of the law making Mandaue City a lone district will benefit both the city and the Sixth District residual towns of Cordova and Consolacion.

Cebu Sixth District Representative Jonas Cortes, in a press conference on Wednesday, May 8, 2019, said that the passage of the lone district law will provide better project opportunities for Cordova and Consolacion since they would no longer need to share national budget with Mandaue City.

Cortes also shrugged off contentions that the lack of geographical continuity between the towns of Cordova and Consolacion will negatively affect the representation of the sixth district.

“Wala man na giprohibit kon dili sumpay. Nahiuna lang gyud og kahimong lone district ang Lapu-Lapu [City] unya karon ang Mandaue City. Consolacion and Cordova still qualify as residual towns in the Sixth District,” Cortes said.

(It is not prohibited for non-adjoining towns to belong to one district. Lapu-lapu City and Mandaue City, which used to be part of the sixth district, just became lone districts first but Consolacion and Cordova still qualify as residual towns in the sixth district.)

Read more: Bill to make Mandaue City a lone district ‘good as signed’ — Sitoy

Cortes added that the making of Mandaue City as a lone district is long overdue because the city has long qualified for it since it is classified as a highly urbanized city (HUC).

Cortes said it might be time for the entire province, not only the city, to work on increasing the number of districts in order to have more representations in Congress.

By this time, Cortes said there should ideally be 14 to 15 district representations for the entire Cebu province.

Despite being signed last April, Cortes said the establishment of the new district would only take effect after the 2022 national elections.

This means that whoever wins the congressional race for the sixth district this May 13 would still represent Mandaue City and the two residual towns as sixth district representative.

All congressional candidates in the sixth district this midterm polls come from Mandaue City.

Even when the new districting takes effect, Mandaue City voters are still qualified to vote for provincial positions like the gubernatorial and vice gubernatorial posts unlike the cities of Lapu-Lapu and Cebu, which are also classified as HUCs.

Cortes explained that voting for gubernatorial positions is specifically stipulated in the city’s charter passed in August 1969. /bmjo