Bishop David talks to relatives of Duterte’s drug war victims. (CBPC News)
Philippines
“David! Nagdududa nga ako bakit ka sige ikot diyan nang gabi. Duda tuloy ako, putang ina, nasa droga ka,” said Duterte in a November 2018 speech in Davao City.- Rodrigo Duterte
A vocal critic of former President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war has been named the newest cardinal of the Catholic Church.
Kalookan bishop Virgilio ‘Ambo’ David was one of the harshest critic of Duterte and was threatened with death by the former president who is now under investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for genocide. He (Duterte) is alleged to have killed more than 30,000 suspected drug users during his term.
Related reading:
David and Goliath : Bishop David and President Rodrigo Duterte
David, 65, will join the group of active Filipino cardinals, which includes Cardinal Jose Advincula of Manila and Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, who is serving in the Vatican. He is currently president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).
The country’s other living cardinals are Gaudencio Rosales, archbishop emeritus of Manila, and Orlando Quevedo, archbishop emeritus of Cotabato. However, since both are over 80 years old, they can no longer take part in choosing a new pope.
Born in Betis, Pampanga, David was ordained priest for the Archdiocese of San Fernando in 1983.
In 2006, he was named auxiliary bishop of San Fernando, serving in that role until his transfer to the Kalookan diocese in 2015.
A priest for 41 years and a bishop for 18, David is one of the country’s leading biblical scholars, holding a doctorate in theology from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium.
He is the 10th of the 13 children of Pedro David and Bienvenida Siongco.[1][2] He attended Mother of Good Counsel Minor Seminary in San Fernando, Pampanga for his secondary education. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Pre-Divinity from Ateneo de Manila University, his master’s degree in Theology from the Loyola School of Theology, and both his licentiate and doctorate in Sacred Theology from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium.
He has also trained at the École Biblique et Archeologique Française de Jerusalem, and is now considered one of the country’s leading Bible experts.