Cardinal Sin protégé is new CBCP president

A protégé of the late Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin is the new president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines, the bishops' body said Sunday.

In a post on its Twitter account, the CBCP said Lingayen-Dagupan "Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan is new CBCP president."

Villegas, who served as the CBCP's vice president before Sunday's election, succeeds Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma.

The CBCP started on Saturday its three-day midyear plenary assembly at the Pius XII Center in Manila. The assembly ends on Monday.

Also, the CBCP said Villegas, 52, will lead the CBCP's 96 active and 40 honorary members.

Moreover, it said Davao Archbishop Romulo Valles was elected vice president.

Villegas and Valles will formally assume their new posts on December 1, 2013.

Other officials

Palo Archbishop John Du was reelected Treasurer of the CBCP.

Meanwhile, Fr. Marvin Mejia was elected CBCP Secretary General, succeeding Msgr. Joselito Asis. Mejia was deputy secretary general.

Asis will now return to the Diocese of Daet.

Villegas was ordained priest by then Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin in 1985. He was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Manila in 2001.

In 2004, he was appointed bishop of Balanga diocese before he was named archbishop of Lingayen-Dagupan in 2009.

On the other hand, Valles, 61, was ordained in 1976 before he was appointed as the fourth bishop of Kidapawan in 1997.

In 2006, he was named archbishop of Zamboanga until 2012, when he was transferred to Davao archdiocese.

The CBCP president and the vice-president are elected for two-year terms.

If tradition is to be followed, incumbent officials are reelected for their second and last term.

But outgoing Palma wanted to yield his CBCP post so he could give more attention to the Cebu Archdiocese, which will host the International Eucharistic Congress in 2016.
— LBG, GMA News