Bishop of Kidapawan
Bishop José Colin Mendoza Bagaforo, Bishop of Kidapawan, was born on January 30, 1954, in Cotabato, in the Archdiocese of Cotabato. He completed his philosophical studies at Notre Dame Seminary in Cotabato and his theological studies at St. Francis Xavier Regional Major Seminary in Davao. He was ordained a priest for Cotabato on March 25, 1980. After two years as parochial vicar in Tacurong City, he served until 1990 as superintendent of the schools of the archdiocese and, for two of those years, concurrently as spiritual director of Notre Dame Seminary in Cotabato. He undertook theological studies at Weston School of Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts (1990-1991), obtaining a specialisation, and further specialised in education at Xavier University in Cagayan de Oro in 1994 and at the Asian Institute of Management in Makati City in 2003. He was parish priest of the cathedral of Cotabato (1991-1997), parish priest in Tacurong City (1997-1999) and parish priest in Maguindanao (1999-2001), and served as bursar of the archdiocese (2001-2002). From 2002 he was president of Notre Dame of Tacurong College, and in 2004 he was appointed vicar general of the Archdiocese of Cotabato. On February 2, 2006, he was appointed Titular Bishop of Vazari-Didda and Auxiliary Bishop of Cotabato. He received episcopal ordination on April 25, 2006, with Orlando Beltran Quevedo as principal consecrator and Fernando Robles Capalla and Angel Nacorda Lagdameo as co-consecrators. On July 25, 2016, he was appointed Bishop of Kidapawan.