1. 17th Congress of the
Philippines
Cong. Jonas Cortes

2. Jonas Cortes
• Jonas Cabungcal Cortes (born July 20, 1966) is a Filipino
politician serving as the Mayor of Mandaue City since 2019, a
position he previously held from 2007 to 2016. He previously
served as representative of the sixth district of Cebu from 2016 to
2019.

3. Personal life
• Cortes is the thirteenth child of the former mayor of Mandaue Demetrio
Cortes Sr. and Celestina Alimpangog Cabungcal. He is of Filipino,
Spanish and Chinese ancestry. He was born and raised in Centro,
Mandaue. Cortes attended St. Joseph's Academy for grade school in
1972-78 and in St Louis School of Mandaue for high school on 1978-82
both in Mandaue. He graduated from Visayas State College of
Agriculture in 1987 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Animal
Husbandry. He married Sarah Lea Walker, a Filipino-American on August
14, 1999, with whom he has two children, Dmitri and Mikyla.

4. Political Issues
• During the 2019 Elections, then City Mayor Gabriel Luis Quisumbing
(2016-2019) filed cases against Jonas Cortes thru "tax payers" in an
alleged plunder and graft case including several former city officials
involving a signed deed of absolute sale between EC Ouano
Development and Management Corp. (Ecodemcor), a company owned
by Olga Ouano in September 2015 for the 35,821-square-meter property,
which was sold at a recorded price of P50 per sq/m, which turned out to
be just part of the purchase price as there was also a donation of several
properties in consideration of the said sale. In fact, the whole case turned
out to be a political move by Cortes' rival Quisumbing, in order to put him
at a disadvantage as a part of his campaign propaganda strategy.

5. • Another lease contract entered into by the Cortes administration
was also found to be questionable because this lacked city council
ratification.
• Another lease contract entered into by the Cortes administration
was also found to be questionable because this lacked city council
ratification.

6. • Katumanan Hardware Inc. had reportedly authorized the sub-lease
of the property to Cenore Corporation even in the absence of
Council approval. However, this was readily refuted by Cortes who
argued that the right to sublease is already part of the authority
granted to the lessee in the contract of lease with the City. This
issue was again raised by the former Quisumbing's political
campaign team against former Mayor Cortes as part of his
propaganda strategy during the 2019 elections.

7. 2007 Election
• Cortes filed his COC as an independent and ran against former
Mandaue City Mayor Teddy Ouano's son Jonkie Ouano, Cortes
was elected mayor.

8. 2010 Election
• Cortes won a second term as mayor in 2010 when he received
59.54% of the votes, and also carried his party to win a majority of
the seats on the city council after he defeated in a landslide victory
former 6th district representative Nerissa Soon Ruiz and her slate.

9. 2019 Election
• In an unprecedented move, Jonas Cortes, together with Lolypop
Ouano-Dizon made a strategic alliance as Mayoral and
Congressional Candidates respectively. Cortes with the support
of Thadeo Ouano's descendants formed the Cortes-Ouano alliance
supported by PDP-Laban and the regional party One Cebu, with
the blessings of the Norberto Quisumbing. Quisumbing junked his
grandson Luigi Quisumbing's bid in favor of Jonas Cortes.

10. • During the 2019 election, Jonas Cortes was re-elected
as Mayor of Mandaue City, with landslide victory in all the City
Council seats against Luigi
Quisumbing's Hugpong Mandaue.[10][11] Lolypop Ouano Dizon won
a landslide majority as sixth district representative at the House of
Representative. Jonkie Ouano was also elected as Provincial
Board Member of Cebu Province.

11. Economic Boom
• Cortes highlighted the P45.6-million increase in the income of the
city government from the time he assumed office in July last year,
saying he has worked to make the city business-
friendly. [12] Bringing back clean governance in Mandaue City, said
Cortes, was his best achievement in his first year in office.
• He campaigned on a platform that included government reform and
integrity.

12. References
1. http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=567745&publication
SubCategoryId=107[dead link]
2.^ "Over 'anomalous' lot sale: Cortes, 12 others face plunder raps".
3.^ "Mandaue execs sued over land deal". Cebu Daily News. Cebu
Daily News. Archived from the original on 2018-10-21.
4. "Cortes lawyer: Transactions of previous admin were all
legal". Cebu Daily News. Cebu Daily News. Archived from the
original on 2018-11-05.

13. 1. "Team Mandaue Sweeps 2010 Elections". 13 May 2010.
2.^ "Cortes thanks Quisumbing patriarch's support". Sunstar. 2019-
04-25. Retrieved 2020-10-13.
3. "Quisumbing junks grandson Luigi in favor of Cortes". Sunstar.
2019-04-24. Retrieved 2020-10-13.
4.^ "Does Mayor Quisumbing's family grudge affect his political
career?". INQUIRER.net. 2019-05-03. Retrieved 2020-10-13.