Jonas Cortes


Jonas Cabungcal Cortes 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.

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.

Plunder

Recently involved in a plunder and graft case including several former city officials involving a signed deed of absolute sale between EC Ouano Development and Management Corp., a company owned by Olga Ouano in September 2015 for the 35,821-square-meter property, which was sold at a “ridiculously low price” of P50 per sq/m.
Another lease contract entered into by the Cortes administration was also found to be questionable because this lacked city council approval.
The contract involved the lease of 14,408 square meters of lot located at the North Reclamation Area to Katumanan Hardware Inc. in 2007.
However, Katumanan Hardware Inc. had reportedly authorized the sub-lease of the property to Cenore Corporation even in the absence of Council approval.

2007 election

Cortes filed his COC as an independent and ran against Jonkie Ouano, son of former Mandaue City Mayor Thadeo Ouano. Cortes was elected mayor.

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.

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.
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.