Leo Magdugo Dalmao

Leo Magdugo Dalmao was born on December 1, 1969, in Tagbilaran City, Bohol, to Wilfredo Dalmao and Rosario Magdugo, and was baptized at St. Joseph Cathedral, Tagbilaran City. He entered the Claretian congregation in 1986 and studied AB Philosophy at the Claret Formation Center, now St. Anthony Mary Claret College. He made his First Profession on May 3, 1992, in Bungiao, Zamboanga City, studied Bachelor in Sacred Theology and a master's at the Loyola School of Theology, Ateneo de Manila University, from 1992 to 1997, made his Perpetual Profession on July 16, 1996, in Quezon City, and was ordained priest on May 31, 1997, at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Quezon City, by Msgr. José María Querejeta Mendizábal, CMF, Bishop of Isabela Prelature.

After ordination he served in Basilan as project coordinator for the indigenous Samal-Badjau people. He was appointed Prefect of Students in 2000 and, three years later, Novice Master while serving as Consultor and Prefect of Formation of the Philippine Province. He was elected Provincial Superior of the province in 2010, served as co-chairperson of the Association of Major Religious Superiors in the Philippines, and was elected in 2015, at the XXV General Chapter in Rome, as General Consultor and General Prefect of Formation of the congregation.

On March 25, 2019, the Feast of the Annunciation, Pope Francis appointed him Bishop of the Territorial Prelature of Isabela, the first Filipino Claretian bishop. He was consecrated and installed on May 24, 2019, at Sta. Isabel Cathedral in Isabela City, with Zamboanga Archbishop Romulo T. de la Cruz as principal consecrator and Ozamiz Archbishop Martin Jumoad assisting and preaching the homily. He is the fourth bishop-prelate of Isabela, succeeding Jumoad, who had been transferred to Ozamiz in 2016. The prelature was erected on October 12, 1963, and comprises the 1,359 square kilometres of the entire civil Province of Basilan and the cities of Isabela and Lamitan, with more than 126,000 Catholics on the Claretian congregation's count; the Manila Bulletin's installation report gives about 400,000 population, about 30 percent of them Catholic. The Claretians are present in three locations on the island, running schools and parishes. Its first Local Ordinary was Querejeta, from October 24, 1963.