Quisumbing: Consolacion first, then Mandaue district
CEBU 6th district Rep. Luigi Quisumbing said he wants to make Consolacion a city first before working to make Mandaue City a lone congressional district.
He said he wasn’t able to push for the new district during his first term because he focused on Consolacion cityhood and making the district flood-free by 2016.
His rival Nerissa Soon-Ruiz, earlier said Quisumbing’s failure to uplift Mandaue’s status was a major disappointment for his partymate Mandaue Mayor Jonas Cortes.
“As soon as I file the bill for Consolacion,” said Quisumbing in an interview, that will go hand in hand wth the conversion of Mandaue as a lone district.”
Quisumbing said Consolacion remains a municipality even though many clommercial establishments, like SM, have sprung up in the town.
Dividing the 6th district is complex, he said. Removing Mandaue City would leave only the towns of Cordova and Consolacion, which are too small to remain a district by themselves.
“We have to figure it out. We cannot just make a shot gun approach and hastily divide the sixth district. We have to look at it logically. Where would Cordova go?” he said.
“I personally am for the conversion of Mandaue as a lone district. Aas a matter of fact I always wished Mandaue was converted before Lapu-lapu.”
He declined to answer the criticism of former congresswoman Nerissa Soon-Ruiz, who beat him in the 2007 election and later worked with Quisumbing as allies in One Cebu. He said he was not into “trapo politics.’
Soon-Ruiz and Quisumbing were in the same line-up for One Cebu last 2010 elections. Soon-Ruiz won over Ouisumbing in congressional bid during 2007 elections.
