Olango Island as a municipality?
By Dale G. Israel
Cebu Daily News
First Posted 09:03:00 07/12/2008
The island of Olango may have to be upgraded into a municipality as part of efforts to redraw boundaries of Cebu’s congressional districts.
Rep. Nerissa Soon-Ruiz (Cebu, 6th district) said this would enable Olango and the town of Cordova on Mactan Island to comprise a new district.
She said this could solve concerns earlier raised when bills were filed proposing to make Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu cities into their own districts.
In the proposed arrangement, the remaining towns of Cordova and Consolacion of the 6th district would be separated.
Olango Island has 11 barangays, eight of which belong to Lapu-Lapu City which is also on Mactan, while three belong to Cordova.
Soon-Ruiz said Olango and Cordova could qualify to become a new district, while Consolacion would be grouped with its neighbors in the 5th district.
The congresswoman said it was “smooth sailing” for the bills that would give Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue their own representatives in Congress. But there remains a problem as to how the other towns in the 6th district would be grouped.
She assured that Lapu-Lapu City residents would be able to vote for their own congressman by the 2010 elections.
She said Lapu-Lapu may even get this voting power before Mandaue, which was declared a highly urbanized city before Lapu-Lapu.
She said the bill to make Lapu-Lapu a lone district underwent second reading in the plenary last June 28.
Soon-Ruiz said Cebuano legislators have agreed to first resolve the redistricting issue before Mandaue also becomes a lone district.
“There will be problems with which district to associate Cordova town if Mandaue gets a lone district,” she said.
Soon-Ruiz said she would have pushed for Mandaue to have its own representative were it not for the objections of other Cebuano lawmakers.
She said it was Rep. Pablo Garcia (Cebu, 2nd district) who wanted the Cordova issue resolved first.
To solve it, he pushed to rearrange the district divisons of the entire Cebu province, not just the 6th district.
“Some congressmen also do not want to let go of towns in their district, like Representatives (Ramon) Durano VI and (Eduardo) Gullas,” she said. “That’s what we’re still discussing now.
She said that in all likelihood, making Mandaue City a lone district and redistricting Cebu Province may be achieved after 2010.
While Olango is divided between Lapu-Lapu and Cordova, it has about 20,000 people living in 4,000 households, mostly engaged in fishing and farming. The island is a well-known bird and fish sanctuary.
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