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By Oscar C. Pineda

MAYORS of Mandaue City and Cosolacion town are both happy for Lapu-Lapu City residents, as the people will benefit much from its lone district status.

The senate has passed on third reading last Monday the bill converting Lapu-Lapu City into a lone district.

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Their reactions are different though as to its benefits their constituents will get.

Consolacion Mayor Avelino Gungob sees a bigger share of congressional allotment since it will only be the three local government units in the 6th District who will be dividing it.

Gain

Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes, whose city is also eyeing the lone district status, views the city’s potential gain had it become a lone district.

He said Mandauehanons could have solely benefited from the P1.05 Billion priority development assistance fund (PDAF), at P70 million a year for 15 years, instead of sharing it with other local government units had the city become a lone district after it was declared highly urbanized in 1992.

With the recent declaration, Lapu-Lapu City will be the 7th District, and the 6th District where it once belonged will soon be composed of only the towns of Cordova and Consolacion and Mandaue City.

With Lapu-Lapu City out, Gungob sees an increase in their internal revenue allotment share (IRA), as only three LGUs will have shares.

Cortes has mixed reactions.

He is happy for the “Oponganons” as they will solely benefit from their district fund.

“It’s just sad to say that our sixth district representative has not done anything,” said Cortes considering that 6th District Nerisa Soon-Ruiz who is the author of the lone district bill is from Mandaue City.

He said Mandaue City was declared a highly-urbanized city in 1992 and yet “our” representative, in her 15-year term as congresswoman with two years out of position, failed to elevate the city into a lone district status.

Answerable

“Niay taga Mandaue, lumad nga taga Mandaue, way nahimo, dako ang iyang tulubagon sa katawhan (Here’s someone from Mandaue, a native of Mandaue, who has not done anything, she has a lot to answer to the people),” said Cortes referring to Ruiz as he labeled her as the district’s “misrepresentative.”

Sad to note, according to the mayor, that it was only former congressman Efren Herrera, when he filed the bill, who saw the importance of making Mandaue a lone district.

Ruiz’s chief of staff lawyer Gonzalo Malig-on earlier explained that making Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu cities separate districts will leave Cordova and Consolacion towns an isolated district, and some congressmen will disagree as some of them have 15 municipalities in their districts