Herman Guinto Abcede

Herman Guinto Abcede was born April 13, 1965, in Vinzons, Camarines Norte, in the Diocese of Daet. A Rogationist of the Heart of Jesus (RCJ), he attended Vinzons Pilot High School, earned a Bachelor of Philosophy at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, studied philosophy at the Rogationist Seminary in Manila and theology at the Don Bosco School of Theology in Parañaque City, and earned a licentiate in canon law at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome.

He made perpetual vows in 1991 and was ordained a priest on June 8, 1996; the bulletin does not name his ordaining bishop. His posts included St. Anthony’s Boys Village in Silang, Cavite (assistant treasurer and counsellor; treasurer and director of spiritual affairs at the Rogationist Academy, 1997–2000); superior, treasurer, professor, and prefect of studies at the Blessed Hannibal Formation Center in Cebu; Major Superior of the Philippine Quasi Province (2010–2014) and Provincial Superior of the St. Matthew Province (2010–2018), the overlapping ranges as printed in the bulletin; and, from 2018, membership in the Matrimonial Tribunal of the Diocese of Parañaque, as Defender of the Bond and, from 2021, as judge, and, from 2023, community superior at Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary in Parañaque City.

Pope Francis appointed him Bishop of Daet on March 4, 2025. He was ordained and installed on May 1, 2025, the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker, the diocese’s principal patron, at the Daet Cathedral, with Archbishop Rex Andrew Alarcon of Caceres as principal consecrator, Gilbert Garcera (the previous Daet bishop, now Archbishop of Lipa) and Jesse Mercado of Parañaque as co-consecrators, and Socrates Villegas as homilist. He is the diocese’s fifth bishop, succeeding Alarcon, and the diocese was in its Golden Jubilee Year at his installation. His motto is Rogate ergo Dominum messis (“Pray to the Lord of the harvest,” Matthew 9:38). He had no prior episcopal tenure; he was appointed from the Parañaque community superiorship.