Political foes in Mandaue forge alliance to support Duterte

Politicians in Mandaue City who belonged to different political parties before have united to support the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.

Mayor Gabriel Luis Quisumbing posted photos of him together with Rep. Jonas Cortes (Cebu, sixth district), Vice Mayor Carlo Fortuna, the rest of the City Council and former Mandaue councilor Emmarie “Lolypop” Ouano in his Facebook account.

The first photo posted by the mayor was a casual dinner of all the stakeholders and the other photo was the birthday party of Ouano in her residence in Barangay Opao last Wednesday.

Quisumbing defeated Ouano for the mayoral post in 2016. Ouano was under the One Cebu party, which is allied with Partido Demokratikong Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) of Duterte, while Quisumbing was with the rival Liberal Party.

After the mayor saw that the City officials’ priorities were the same of the president, Quisumbing and his allies decided to transfer to PDP-Laban.

“Just two weeks ago, Congressman Cortes received his designation as district chair of PDP-Laban. I will be appointed as city chairman of PDP-Laban so it appears that we are united in PDP-Laban for the next elections,” he said.

Quisumbing said Mandaue’s PDP-Laban members have an agreement to come up with a unified slate for the barangay polls.

This was one of the primary reasons why I decided together with the City Council and Vice Mayor Carlo Fortuna last year to join PDP-Laban because we saw that all of our main priorities for the City of Mandaue fell squarely within the underlying principles and the core philosophy of PDP-Laban. LUIGI QUISUMBING Mayor, Mandaue City

He said they now have candidates for the barangay elections, except for Barangays Canduman, Tawason, Jagobiao and Bakilid because the incumbent barangay captain in these areas are now serving their last term. /