Pope Leo XIV names Mati Bishop Abel Apigo the fifth Archbishop of Davao, the first born in the city

The announcement

The Holy See Press Office published the appointment in its daily bulletin on Monday, November 9. "The Holy Father has appointed Bishop Abel Cahiles A. Apigo as metropolitan archbishop of Davao, Philippines, transferring him from the diocese of Mati," the bulletin said, after noting that the Pope had accepted the resignation of Archbishop Romulo Valles. Valles turned 75 in July, the age at which canon law asks bishops to offer their resignation. The bulletin appears at noon in Rome, 7 p.m. in Davao, so the news reached the archdiocese on Monday evening.

Apigo becomes the fifth archbishop of Davao since the see was raised to an archdiocese in 1970, and the first born within the city. The Archdiocese of Davao is the metropolitan see for the dioceses of Digos, Tagum and Mati, so the new archbishop will preside over the province that includes the diocese he is leaving.

A priest formed and kept in Davao

Apigo was born on May 21, 1968 in Calinan, Davao City. He studied at St. Francis Xavier College Seminary and the St. Francis Xavier Regional Major Seminary in Catalunan Grande and was ordained a priest on April 18, 1994. His first assignments were at San Pedro Cathedral, as parochial vicar from 1994 to 1996 and pastoral director from 1996 to 1997, before he was sent to Rome, where he completed a licentiate in Church history at the Pontifical Gregorian University in 2000.

Back in Davao he taught at the regional major seminary, then served as academic affairs coordinator, vice rector and dean, and from 2006 to 2018 as rector. Valles named him episcopal vicar for the clergy in 2014. On February 10, 2018 Pope Francis appointed him the second Bishop of Mati, succeeding Patricio Alo, who had led the diocese, which covers Davao Oriental, since its creation in 1984. Valles was principal consecrator at his episcopal ordination at San Pedro Cathedral on April 24, 2018, and he was installed the next day at San Nicolas de Tolentino Cathedral in Mati. At the bishops' conference he sits on the Commissions on the Doctrine of the Faith and on Liturgy.

Valles's fourteen years

Valles was born on July 10, 1951 in Maribojoc, Bohol, and moved with his family to Davao Oriental at 13. He was ordained for the Diocese of Tagum on April 6, 1976. John Paul II made him Bishop of Kidapawan on June 24, 1997, with his ordination on August 6, and Archbishop of Zamboanga on November 13, 2006. Benedict XVI transferred him to Davao on February 11, 2012 to succeed Fernando Capalla, and he was installed on May 22, 2012.

He was president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines from December 2017 to November 2021, between Archbishop Socrates Villegas and Bishop Pablo Virgilio David. He marked fifty years as a priest in April 2026. Parishioners call him Archbishop Muloy.

What the parishes said

San Pedro Cathedral Parish, where Apigo began as a curate, posted that "a true son of Davao, Archbishop elect Abel was born in Calinan" and thanked the outgoing archbishop: "Salamat kaayo, Archbishop Muloy." The Diocese of Mati wrote: "We give thanks to God for his generous pastoral leadership."

No date has been announced for the installation. The cathedral parish said details would follow once arrangements are made. The bulletin did not say who will administer the Diocese of Mati in the meantime. The pallium, the woolen band worn by a metropolitan archbishop, is conferred in the home archdiocese by the papal nuncio after the installation.

What changes

Apigo inherits an archdiocese that has had four archbishops in 56 years: Clovis Thibault, Antonio Mabutas, Fernando Capalla and Valles. The last two, Capalla and Valles, came from outside the city and both went on to lead the national bishops' conference. He is the first to have passed through every stage of Davao's own clergy pipeline, from the college seminary to the rector's office, before taking the chair. Mati, carved out of the Archdiocese of Davao in 1984, waits for its third bishop.