Pope Leo XIV has appointed Ilagan Bishop David William Antonio as the new archbishop of Nueva Segovia, bringing the Ilocos Sur-born prelate back to his home province.
The Vatican announced the appointment on late Tuesday, naming the 61-year-old bishop as the eighth metropolitan archbishop of Ilocos Sur.
He succeeds Archbishop Marlo Peralta, whose resignation was accepted in July after he reached the mandatory retirement age of 75.
Peralta, who has led the archdiocese since 2014, will continue to oversee its operations until the installation of Antonio.
Antonio has served as bishop of Ilagan in Isabela since 2018.
Before that, he was auxiliary bishop of Nueva Segovia and later served as apostolic administrator of the Apostolic Vicariate of San Jose in Occidental Mindoro from 2018 to 2023.
According to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) News, Antonio was born in Sto. Domingo, Ilocos Sur, and was ordained priest for the Archdiocese of Nueva Segovia in 1988 after studying philosophy at San Pablo Seminary in Baguio City and theology at the Immaculate Conception School of Theology (ICST) in Vigan.
He later earned a doctorate in theology from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
Within Nueva Segovia, he previously served as rector of ICST and vicar general of the archdiocese.
In 2011, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him auxiliary bishop to assist then Archbishop Ernesto Salgado.
He was ordained later that year-the last Filipino bishop named by Benedict before the pope’s resignation in 2013.
Pope Francis later appointed Antonio as bishop of Ilagan in November 2018, where he served for seven years.
Antonio also once chaired the Episcopal Commission on Vocations and now heads the Episcopal Commission on Liturgy under the CBCP.
The date of his formal installation in Vigan has yet to be announced.