Bishop of Balanga

The Roman Catholic Bishop of Balanga is the head of the Diocese of Balanga having jurisdiction over the province of Bataan in the Philippines.^[1]

Since March 1, 2025, the current bishop is Rufino Sescon, succeeding Ruperto Santos who became Bishop of Antipolo covering Markina, Metro Manila and the province of Rizal on July 22, 2023.

Position information

Like other bishops and archbishops of dioceses and archdioceses, the Bishop of Balanga is appointed by the pope. Despite that the diocese is part of the Ecclesiastical Province of San Fernando, Pampanga, it and the bishop himself operates and governs independently from an archdiocese, and both directly under papal governance.

If the current bishop resigns, he simply continues to serve the position and office represented as the Balanga Cathedral until his successor takes one at the installation ceremony date.

On the other hand, if an administrator is simply a sede vacante diocesan administrator priest where he simply serves as in-between bishops in office, the start of a bishop's overall position tenure and its office are separate. At that case, his tenure start upon appointment and months later the cathedral prepares for installation into office where the coat of arms are placed at the floor and cathedra either few days or weeks before depending on the discretion or decision of an already appointed bishop in cooperation with an administrator and after the preparation, he is then installed at the ceremony marking his start of the position's office resulting from an appointment. If the one between is an apostolic administrator who is a prelate, however, the new bishop only start one upon being installed.

While the start of the bishop's tenure are different depending on the circumstances of vacancy, its end are only the same where it happens when he dies, resigns where his successor will take both, or installed into another diocese or archdiocese with the latter becoming an archbishop.

The bishop oversees 11 Catholic schools in the province under Diocesan Schools of Bataan Educational Foundation, Inc. (DSOBEFI), established in 2006 under Socrates Villegas, as board of trustees. Since June 5, 2020 with Ruperto Santos, he also acts as a parish administrator of parishes that do not have a rector and parish priest available to be designated while a particular 6-years term since the tenure of Villegas on July 2005 is still ongoing.

History

The diocese was established by Pope Paul VI on March 17, 1975. Three months after its establishment, he appointed Celso Guevarra as the diocese's first bishop on June 4, 1975. At those times, Bataan was still under the jurisdiction of Archdiocese of San Fernando, Pampanga. Guevarra became bishop on his installation in November 8, 1975, establishing the position and separated the province from an archdiocese under the governance of its archbishop Emilio A. Cinense.

Celso Guevarra was the longest to serve the position at 22 years, 7 months, 4 days (8,258 days) from November 8, 1975 upon his retirement on June 18, 1998 where he was succeeded by Honesto Ongtioco as second bishop, serving until became Bishop of Cubao in Quezon City, Metro Manila on August 28, 2003, making the diocese having Bishop of Balanga continuously for 28 years.

On the other hand, the longest-living serving bishop and second overall of the diocese is Ruperto Santos, who was the priest of the Archdiocese of Manila and concurrently rector of Pontifical Filipino College in Rome, Italy for 27 and 11 years, respectively, from September 10, 1983 until his installation into office as fourth bishop on July 8, 2010 three months after his start of overall position tenure upon appointment by Pope Benedict XVI on April 1, 2010, the Holy Week, Holy Triduum, and Holy Thursday of 2010, since October 2015 at 13 years, 3 months, 21 days (4,860 days) from April 1, 2010 to July 22, 2023 with office at the said date of July 2010. He served the position at all years of Catholic Church involvement over his appointer from April 2010 to his funeral as pope-emeritus on January 5, 2023, 6 months and 17 days before stepping down as the diocese's bishop, and two deaths and wakes, and one funeral of sede vacante diocesan administrators Victor Ocampo and Antonio Dumaual from March 16 to July 22, 2023. Santos is also the first bishop to hold the position of a parish administrator at Mariveles Church from June 5, 2020 to June 4, 2023. However, the wake and funeral of Dumaual from July 22 to 31, 2023 is when Santos was already Bishop of Antipolo and under temporary bishopric of the diocese as apostolic administrator of Florentino Lavarias, Archbishop of San Fernando since October 27, 2014.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]}

Since 2025, the diocese has 49 parishes with those established before November 1975 were inherited from the said archdiocese, 11 schools through the diocese's DSOBEFI formed in 2006, 863,610 Catholics, and 66 priests, all within its jurisdiction Bataan.

Bishops

Bishops of the diocese who became bishop-emeritus on another diocese or after serving as Bishop of Balanga

• Honesto Ongtioco (Cubao), since December 3, 2024.