MANILA, Philippines — Bishop Pablo Virgilio David, one of the fiercest critics of President Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly “war on drugs,” was elected Thursday as the president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.
The 62-year-old Caloocan prelate will be replacing Archbishop Romulo Valles of Davao as the CBCP president. He will begin his term on Dec. 1, 2021.
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David, who had been serving as CBCP’s vice president since December 2017, had earned the ire of Duterte for his staunch opposition to the bloody campaign against illegal drugs which has taken the lives of some 6,000 people as of April, according to government data.
Duterte had baselessly accused David of stealing church donations and being involved in the drug trade.
In response, David said Duterte was “sick” and clueless with what he was talking about.
“You see, people who are sick sometimes do not know what they are talking about, so we should just bear with them,” the bishop said.
David, one of the country’s leading Bible scholars, was the chair of the CBCP’s Episcopal Commission on Biblical Apostolate.
He was also one of five Filipino bishops sent to the 2008 Synod of Bishops on the Word of God in the Vatican.