NOTE: THIS STORY WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE BOHOL CHRONICLE’S SUNDAY PRINT EDITION.

Bishop Patrick Daniel Parcon of the Diocese of Talibon was reelected Thursday as a member of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Phils. (CBCP) permanent council representing Central and Eastern Visayas.

Parcon’s position came with the election of Caloocan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David as the new CBCP president. 

Bishop Louie Galbines of Kabankalan represents Western Visayas.

Their election came during the first of the two-day bishops’ online plenary assembly.

David will replace Boholano Archbishop Romulo Valles of the Archdiocese of Davao.

Valles who got re-elected for a second term ended his four-year stint as CBCP president. He hails from Maribojoc town.

The 62-year-old David has been serving as CBCP vice president since December 2017. He will be succeeded by Pasig Bishop Mylo Hubert Vergara.

The newly elected officials will begin their terms on Dec. 1, 2021.

David was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of San Fernando in 1983. He was named as the auxiliary bishop of the same archdiocese in 2006. He was transferred to the Diocese of Caloocan in January 2016.

David has been outspoken against President Rodrigo Duterte’s controversial policies, particularly on the bloody war on drugs, which the chief executive has repeatedly defended from criticisms by local and international human rights groups.