Mandaue politics
Iam intrigued by the current political realignment in Mandaue City not only because of the seeming drama it conjured but also because of the interest it has generated from political operators who are also active on social media. The verbal exchange has so far been intense.
The realignments have resulted in the isolation of Mayor Luigi Quisumbing, who is being accused of reneging on his supposed agreement with sixth district Rep. Jonas Cortes that they would swap places in the May 2019 elections. Quisumbing is former sixth district representative while Cortes is former Mandaue City mayor.
Luigi is obviously a formidable opponent not only because he is the incumbent but also because he belongs to the clan whose patriarch is businessman Norberto Quisumbing. The resources at his disposable just can’t be laughed off. Because of this, Cortes linked up with the Ouanos and the camp of former congresswoman Nerissa Soon-Ruiz to battle Luigi.
How did these big-name politicians in Mandaue divide the political pie? Cortes is running for mayor against Luigi with Nerissa content in running for a post in the city council. Emmarie “Lollipop” Ouano-Dizon is running for the post that Cortes is vacating while her brother Thadeo Jovito Ouano is running for Provincial Board (PB) member together with Regional Development Council (RDC) member Glenn Soco.
At first blush, Quisumbing seems to be the beleaguered one in this setup. In social media, my good friend Edward Ligas, who is with Luigi, is himself being battered by a group supporting Cortes and the so-called united opposition. The mayor is turning out to be the underdog against Cortes even if he is the incumbent.
With the city’s big clans uniting against him, Luigi is reaching out to an outside force, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte and her Hugpong ng Pagbabago. Incidentally, his party is also named Hugpong Mandauehanon ng Pagbabago. Earlier reports said the presidential daughter will be in Mandaue on Oct. 20 to sign a memorandum of agreement that would formalize the alliance between her Hugpong and Luigi’s own Hugpong.
We don’t know if that would be enough to defeat the challenge of the united opposition. There’s actually this theory that despite urban growth, Mandaue has remained clannish, meaning feudal, in its politics. If so, then Luigi is truly beleaguered. And can anybody bail him out of this predicament? I think he can still have a fighting chance if he is propped up by NQ (businessman Norberto Quisumbing). If he isn’t, then he needs to bring the battle to the grassroots.
Unlike other beleaguered candidates, Luigi has, I think, enough resources to organize a credible campaign at the grassroots level. But he needs to produce and train new political leaders fast to replace the ones that the united opposition has sucked. That’s a difficult task but if he can do it and succeed, he would come out of this episode a truly formidable Mandaue politician. If he doesn’t, then one can say that traditional politics triumphed again there.
That is why I consider the elections in Mandaue City intriguing.