Ex-CBCP president Capalla dies at 89

MANILA, Philippines — Former Davao archbishop and Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) president Fernando Capalla died early morning yesterday, according to the Archdiocese of Davao. He was 89.

Capalla passed away at 1:23 a.m., according to an announcement made by the archdiocese’s chancellor Rev. Msgr. Jaime Gamboa.

“We in the Archdiocese of Davao, with the Most Rev. Romulo G. Valles, our Archbishop, and the Most Rev. George B. Rimando, our auxiliary bishop, and the clergy and religious and lay faithful, will remember with gratitude Archbishop Nanding,” Gamboa said.

He added that the archdiocese has yet to make arrangements for Capalla’s wake and funeral.

Capalla served as archbishop of Davao from 1996 until his retirement in 2012, according to the news service of the CBCP.

He also headed the CBCP from 2003 to 2005, during the term of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Capalla formed the Bishops-Ulama conference, “an interreligious organization aimed at fostering understanding between Muslims and Christians,” the CBCP said.

During his stint as CBCP president and archbishop of Davao, Capalla was vocal about peace talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, as well as his opposition on extrajudicial killings perpetrated by the Davao Death Squad, according to earlier news reports.

Capalla was subjected to criticism by former president Rodrigo Duterte after condemning the latter’s war on drugs.

The late prelate was also the brother of Romeo Capalla, a former leader of the New People’s Army (NPA) killed in the hands of communist rebels in Iloilo in 2014.