Former Customs chief, DT columnist eyes Cebu City mayoral post

Former Customs Commissioner and Daily Tribune columnist Yogi Felimon Ruiz expressed yesterday his intention to run for Cebu City Mayor in May 2025.

” I have decided, there’s no point in denying. How I will tell the people my vision if I do not tell it now. That is what I am planning. That is what is in my heart,” Ruiz told selected media over lunch at Golden Peak Hotel in Cebu City.

He said that he decided to join local politics because the present administration and other known local politicians have done nothing to improve the city and its constituents.

Citing ” recycled politicians” without naming names.

” I would say, it’s the garbage that should be recycled and not recycle our politicians,” Ruiz stressed.

Ruiz reiterated that Rama’s Singapore-like plan is nothing but “sloganeering” as Cebu City has its own potential and if developed can make the city better if not a par with other Asian cities.

He mentioned five-point programs as traffic control and management; waste dispersal; peace and order; flood control and drainage; and health services to focus on barangay health centers.

Ruiz proposes the construction of cable cars to decongest traffic; building up a ferry terminal at the SRP; number coding of vehicles; enhanced tourism projects and a better program for the senior citizens coming up with an ordinance that 20% of establishments’ workforce from senior citizens which was done in the cities of Manila and Pasig. And free medicines to constituents with co-morbidities.

Ruiz was the former regional director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Central Visayas(PDEA-7/ before joining Customs as director of Emergency Security Services -Customs Police Division.

His bachelor’s degree was from the University of the Visayas BS in Criminology and pursued a Master in Public Administration and a doctorate in Philosophy, a Ph.D. in Management.

He is a resident and registered voter in Barangay Manolo, Cebu City.