Noel Portal Pedregosa

Noel Portal Pedregosa was born on October 18, 1964, in M'lang, Cotabato. He attended Loyola High School in Don Carlos, studied philosophy at St. Isidro College in Malaybalay, theology at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary in Cagayan de Oro, and earned a Licentiate of Sacred Scripture (S.S.L.) at the Loyola School of Theology in Manila. Wikipedia's infobox gives 'STL'; the Dominus Est profile's S.S.L. governs. He was ordained a priest on September 11, 1991, for Malaybalay; no source names an ordaining bishop, and none is shipped. He was Vicar General of Malaybalay and rector of St. Isidro Cathedral from 2017, and in July 2020 he became diocesan administrator when Jose Cabantan left for Cagayan de Oro. That administrator service was as a priest, so following the series precedent it is bio prose only, not a tenure. His episcopal motto is Ut Omnes Unum Sint, Latin for 'That They May All Be One', from John 17:21, confirmed by the Dominus Est profile, not Wikipedia alone. His coat of arms carries the IHS monogram, azure for Marian devotion, the colors of the seven Bukidnon tribes, the Sacred Scriptures for devotion to the Word of God, gold for illumination and St. Joseph, and a tree rooted in greenery for the Church's ecological thrust. The Dominus Est profile calls him 'the first who hails from the diocese'; since he was born in M'lang, Cotabato, the safe reading is that he is the first bishop drawn from the diocese's own clergy, and the dossier does not claim a Malaybalay birthplace.

On June 29, 2021, he was appointed the fifth Bishop of Malaybalay, succeeding Jose Cabantan, who had held the diocese from May 15, 2010, to June 23, 2020; the appointment was announced by Nuncio Charles Brown before the Manila Cathedral Mass for Sts. Peter and Paul. He was consecrated and installed on September 14, 2021, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, with Archbishop Jose Cabantan of Cagayan de Oro as principal consecrator and Archbishop Angelito Lampon of Cotabato and Bishop Raul Dael of Tandag as co-consecrators, and Nuncio Brown in attendance. The diocese was erected as a territorial prelature on April 25, 1969, and elevated to a diocese on November 15, 1982; it covers Bukidnon except Malitbog, which belongs to Cagayan de Oro.

In the window, his public record is environmental advocacy and public accountability, not liturgical governance. At his installation he set an environment-focused ministry under Laudato Si', and in May 2026 he used a fiesta homily to call for a healthy and democratic impeachment process and to announce a pastoral visit for financial transparency. Neither is a governing act concerning the 1962 Missal, and no such act of his own was found.