Mandaue mayor reaches out to Muslim residents

MANDAUE City Mayor Jonas Cortes assured the Muslim community in barangay Mantuyong of continued support from his administration.

He was invited last Sunday to the celebration of Eid-AL-Fitr, the Muslim’s special day marking the end of Ramadan.

During the visit, the mayor learned that most residents didn’t have electric power.

Connections were not restored by the Visayan Electric Company after a fire struck two months ago.

Cortes said he would follow up the problem with Veco after finding out with Muslim leaders how many residents there are still without power.

The mayor also promised to help residents own their own homes through the Community Mortgage Program (CMP), which allows organized homeowners to acquire their land on installment basis through the government.

Cortes said that if the socialized housing program is adopted, he would encourage Muslim settlers to to build houses “bayanihan style” as what was done by the Lower Tipolo Homeowners Association Inc.

Some Muslim residents also asked permission to sell their goods in the city’s sidewalks.

The mayor, however, did not agree to this, citing the risk posed to pedestrians, especially children, who would be deprived of the use of sidewalks.

Instead the mayor invited Muslim vendors to sell their goods in the night market which the city government opened last April in the New Public Market.

He said they can sell there provided they keep the area clean.

According to market administrator Mosulini Suliva, the vendors who sell at the night market only pay for the use of electric power. /Correspondent Norman V. Mendoza