Deputy Speaker Rufus Rodriguez will seek reelection as representative of Cagayan de Oro’s 2nd District in 2022, ending weeks of speculation that he would run for mayor against Mayor Oscar Moreno’s bet, Representative Rolando Uy of the city’s 1st District.

Rodriguez’s Centrist Democratic Party and the Padayon Pilipino of Misamis Oriental Governor Yevgeny Vincente Emano agreed to field Phividec Industrial Authority administrator Jose Gabriel “Pompee” La Viña as their candidate for mayor, confirmed Councilor Lordan Suan on Thursday night, September 30.

The announcement came just hours before the first day of the filing of certificates of candidacy for the 2022 elections.

Rodriguez’s sister, Councilor Jocelyn Rodriguez, has been chosen as La Viña’s running mate.

The Padayon Pilipino-CDP coalition has also decided to field Councilor Suan as its candidate for congressman in the city’s 1st District, a position that will be vacated by Uy, who is serving his third and final office term.

Padayon Pilipino is a regional party founded by the governor’s father, the late mayor Vicente Emano who was erstwhile political kingpin of Cagayan de Oro and Misamis Oriental.

La Viña first ran for mayor of Cagayan de Oro in 2019, but lost the race to Mayor Oscar Moreno who sought a third and final term. 

The social media director of President Rodrigo Duterte’s successful 2016 presidential campaign, La Viña first served as a commissioner of the Social Security System and then as a tourism department undersecretary. – Rappler.com

Froilan Gallardo is a Mindanao-based journalist and an awardee of the Aries Rufo Journalism Fellowship