Pablito Martinez Tagura

Pablito Martinez Tagura was born on January 15, 1962, in Tayum, Abra, and raised in Lagangilang, Abra, to Marcos B. Tagura and Magdalena M. Tagura, both educators. He studied at St. Joseph Minor Seminary and Divine Word College in Bangued, entered Christ the King Mission Seminary in 1978, and went to the Divine Word Seminary in Tagaytay City as a novice on June 1, 1980. He professed his first vows on June 6, 1982, and his final vows on May 31, 1988, was ordained a deacon on June 9, 1988, and was ordained a priest on December 17, 1988, in Bangued. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy cum laude and a Master of Arts in Philosophy magna cum laude, and ecclesiastical and Bachelor of Arts degrees in Theology magna cum laude, the degrees conferred by the Pontifical Urban University, and finished his doctorate in philosophy at Marquette University in 1997. He is fondly called 'Father Pabs.'

As a priest he taught at Christ the King Mission Seminary, as professor from 1989 to 1991, professor and economer from 1997 to 1999, dean of studies and professor from 1999 to 2004, and rector, dean of studies, and professor from 2005 to 2014. He served on the Provincial Council of the Society of the Divine Word Philippine Central Province from 2015 to 2018, was guest professor at Divine Word College in Epworth, Iowa, from 2017 to 2020, and returned as rector and dean of studies from 2020 to 2023.

On December 17, 2022, Pope Francis appointed him Apostolic Vicar of San Jose in Mindoro. He was consecrated bishop on February 17, 2023, at the Diocesan Shrine of Jesus the Divine Word at Christ the King Mission Seminary in Quezon City, with Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle as principal consecrator and Archbishop Charles John Brown and Archbishop Gilbert Garcera as co-consecrators, and was canonically installed on February 25, 2023, at the Cathedral of St. Joseph the Worker in San Jose, with Brown leading the installation rites. He thanked Bishop David William Antonio of Ilagan for his sacrifices as apostolic administrator of the vicariate. Antonio had administered the vicariate since Palang's resignation; the dossier does not pin the start of his administration, on which the sources differ. He succeeded Bishop Antonio Palang, who had resigned on March 17, 2018, for health reasons and died on April 21, 2021. The vicariate was erected in 1983 and counted 525,354 people in 2020, 87 percent of them Catholic, with 20 parishes and 11 diocesan priests. His episcopal motto is 'I lay down my life for the sheep,' from John 10:15; the Latin form, Animam meam pono pro ovibus, rests on Wikipedia.