KALOOKAN Bishop Pablo "Ambo" Virgilio David, a Kapampangan, was elected as the new president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) on Thursday, July 8, 2021, according to a release from the CBCP News.
The 62-year-old prelate has been serving as conference vice president since December 2017.
It could be recalled that David, a known Bible scholar, was the second bishop appointed to the Diocese of Kalookan since its establishment in 2003. David was born on March 2, 1959 in Betis, Guagua, Pampanga.
He was ordained a priest on March 12, 1983. Pope Benedict XVI appointed him Auxiliary Bishop of San Fernando on May 27, 2006 and was ordained Bishop on July 10, 2006. David finished his college seminary formation at the San Jose Seminary, Ateneo de Manila University with a Bachelor of Arts in Pre-Divinity degree.
He took his Master of Arts degree in Theology at the Loyola School of Theology, also in Ateneo, and proceeded to earn his Licentiate in Sacred Theology degree from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium in 1988.
The following year, he took up a doctorate degree in Sacred Theology, also at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium.
David was a member of the Permanent Council of the CBCP from 2007 to 2013 and chaired the Episcopal Commission on Biblical Apostolate of the CBCP from 2009 to 2015.
Meanwhile, Bishop Mylo Hubert Vergara of Pasig will serve as vice president. The newly -elected officials will begin their terms on December 1, 2021.
The CBCP officials have a two-year tenure in office or a total of four to include the second term. The CBCP meets in plenary session twice each year — in January and July — and its works are carried out by a number of commissions and committees.
