CALOOCAN BISHOP Pablo Virgilio David will serve as acting president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), taking over the reins from Davao Archbishop Romulo Valles who is recovering from a mild stroke.
“He wrote me a letter appointing me as the acting president in his absence habang nagre-recuperate siya sa kanyang kalagayan o health condition. [W]hile he was recovering ay nagkaroon siya ng hospital-acquired pneumonia [which] had to be treated bago siya nakapag-rehab doon sa kanyang stroke,” David said in an interview with Radio Veritas.
(He wrote me a letter appointing me as the acting president in his absence while he is recuperating from his health condition. [W]hile he was recovering, he had hospital-acquired pneumonia which had to be treated before his rehabilitation from his stroke.)
David, the CBCP vice president, said Valles had been discharged from the hospital and was staying at his residence in Davao City.
The two top prelates were re-elected to their posts during the CBCP Plenary Assembly in July 2019 and will serve until November 2021.
David is a staunch critic of President Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal war on drugs and had been on the receiving end of Duterte’s tirades against the Catholic Church.
In February, the Department of Justice dismissed the sedition complaint filed by ex-convict Peter Advincula or “Bikoy” against David and other clerics and political figures in connection with the “Ang Totoong Narcolist” videos, which linked the president and his family to the illegal drug trade.
