Pope Francis on Tuesday appointed Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo of Manila as the new bishop of the Apostolic Vicariate of Taytay in Palawan province, reported CBCP News.

Pabillo will replace Bishop Edgardo Juanich who resigned in 2018 due to health reasons.

At the same time, the pope also appointed Monsignor Noel Pedregosa, until now the diocesan administrator of Malaybalay, as the new bishop of the diocese.

The new appointments were announced in Rome at 12 noon (6:00 pm Philippine time).

In Manila, the appointments were announced by Papal nuncio Archbishop Charles Brown before Mass for the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul at the Manila Cathedral.

“I know that you will be sorely missed here in Manila… But the Holy Father is asking you to take on a new and challenging mission in Palawan,” Brown told Pabillo.

Born in 1955, Pabillo was ordained a priest of the Salesians of St. John Bosco by Cardinal Jaime Sin in 1982.

In 2006, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him Auxiliary Bishop of Manila, a post he held for almost 15 years now.

Palawan is not new to Pabillo. He served as a missionary in the province for several years before he was elevated to the episcopacy.

Pabillo currently chairs the Commission on the Laity of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

He also previously served as chairman of the CBCP Episcopal Commission on Social Action-Justice and Peace and the Episcopal Commission on Biblical Apostolate.

Pedregosa, on the other hand, was ordained a priest for Malaybalay in 1991.

Since 2017, the 56-year-old bishop-elect has been vicar general of the diocese and rector of the Malaybalay Cathedral.

The diocese has been without a bishop since August 2020 after Pedrogosa’s predecessor, Archbishop Jose Cabantan, formally assumed his post in Cagayan de Oro.

“We promise him the support of our prayers as he begins his mission in Bukidnon,” Brown also said.