Precioso Dacalos Cantillas
Precioso Dacalos Cantillas, SDB, was born on July 3, 1953, in Langtad, Naga, Cebu. A Salesian of Don Bosco, he attended Don Bosco Technical High School in Cebu City from 1965 to 1969, earned a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Education at Don Bosco Seminary College in Canlubang from 1969 to 1974, studied sacred theology at the University of Santo Tomas from 1976 to 1980, and earned a master's in Industrial Education at the Technological University of the Philippines from 1980 to 1982. He was ordained a priest on December 7, 1979, at Santo Domingo Church in Quezon City; no ordaining bishop is named in the sources used. His early posts included training director and machine shop supervisor, then dean and technical director, at Don Bosco Seminary College; vice-rector and director at Don Bosco Technical College in Mandaluyong; and rector of Don Bosco Technical High School in Punta Princesa, Cebu City, from 1992 to 1995.
On May 31, 1995, he was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Cebu and titular bishop of Vicus Caesaris, and was consecrated on July 12, 1995, at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral, with Cardinal Ricardo Vidal as principal consecrator and Emilio Bataclan and Leo Drona as co-consecrators; the consecration details rest on Wikipedia alone. On January 20, 1998, he was appointed the second Bishop of Maasin, succeeding Vicente Ataviado, and was installed on March 11, 1998. He served as a board member of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority from 1998, chaired the CBCP Commission on Migrants from 2005 to 2013, and chaired the CBCP Commission on Bioethics from 2021 to 2023.
His signature diocesan initiative predates the Traditionis custodes window: from 2017, with the technology firm WeGen, the diocese equipped its 42 parishes with solar panels, and the Vatican document Journeying Towards Care for Our Common Home, released June 18, 2020, cited Maasin as the first diocese in the world to equip all its parishes with solar panels. He also led the solemn Mass on Limasawa Island on March 31, 2021, commemorating the first Mass in the Philippines, likewise pre-window.