Pope Francis has appointed Bishop Midyphil Billones, currently the auxiliary bishop of Cebu, as the new archbishop of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Jaro.

In a GMA Online News report, Billones’ appointment was announced on February 2, 2025 coinciding with the Solemnity of Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria, the patroness of Jaro and Western Visayas.

The report said that Billones succeeds Archbishop Jose Romeo Lazo, who led the archdiocese for nearly seven years.

With Billones’ appointment, Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma, who turns 75 in March 2025, will be left without an assistant bishop.

Bishop Ruben Labajo, a former auxiliary bishop of Cebu, has been appointed as the first bishop of the newly established Diocese of Prosperidad in Agusan del Sur.

Billones will serve as the 14th archbishop of Jaro, which covers the Province of Iloilo and Iloilo City, and the island-province of Guimaras. 

He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Jaro on October 2, 1995.

Billones was born in Panay town, Province of Capiz. 

He studied philosophy at Saint Vincent Ferrer Seminary in Iloilo City. He also earned a master’s degree in theology at the Loyola School of Theology in Quezon City.

He then obtained a doctorate in theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in 2011.

Billones also became the rector of Saint Joseph Regional Seminary of Jaro when Pope Francis appointed him auxiliary bishop of Cebu in July 2019.

Within the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), he is a member of the Commission for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Commission for Seminaries, the report added.