After Msgr. Apigo, Pope Francis appoints two new Filipino bishops

DAVAO CITY—After the news broke out of his first appointment for this year of Msgr. Abel Apigo as new bishop of Mati last February 10, Pope Francis has made two new appointments just this month.

Bishop Jose Romeo Lazo of San Jose de Antique was named as new Archbishop of Jaro in Iloilo, February 14.

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Archbishop Angel Lagdameo of Jaro and will serve as Apostolic Administrator “sede vacante” of the archdiocese until the new archbishop will take canonical possession as 13th archbishop of the said archdiocese.

The new archbishop will serve the metropolitan archdiocese, whose suffragan dioceses include the dioceses of Bacolod, San Jose de Antique, San Carlos and Kabankalan.

Born on January 23, 1949 in San Jose Buenavista, Antique, Archbishop-elect Lazo was ordained to the priesthood April 1, 1975.

Meanwhile, Pope Francis has also appointed Msgr. Bartolome Santos, Jr. as the new bishop of the Diocese of Iba in Zambales last February 18.

Bishop-elect Santos, 50, is currently the Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia of the Diocese of Malolos in Bulacan and has been the rector since 2009 of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Valenzuela City.

The Diocese of Iba has been vacant for almost four years when the former shepherd, the now Archbishop of San Fernando Florentino Labaras was appointed in 2014 to head the Archdiocese of San Fernando in Pampanga. (with reports from CBCP News)