The Santo Tomas de Villanueva parish church in the City of Danao, Cebu Province is seen to become a  cathedral should the birth of a Diocese of Cebu North push through. 

Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma said that in the next assembly of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) this January 2024, the creation of a third diocese will be taken up in another round of discussion.

The endorsement will come from the CBCP and on to the Holy See based on Code of Canon Law, No. 373, which stipulates that the power and authority to create a new diocese is with the Pope being the overall leader of the Roman Catholic Church. 

Archbishop Palma anticipates the creation of a third diocese prior to his retirement in March 2025, or upon his 75th birth anniversary which is the retirement age for bishops. 

Even then, he said, he had already asked Archbishop Charles John Brown, Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines, to appoint an archbishop coadjutor to implement “Sugbuswak,” a portmanteau of Sugbu (old name of Cebu) and “buswak” to mean flourish or bloom, if the creation does not happen yet in time for his retirement. 

As for Cebu Auxiliary Bishop Ruben Labajo, in his homily during the Holy Mass on the second day of the 13th General Pastoral Assembly last November 15, 2023, he said that “Sugbuswak” is about a flowering of new dioceses in Cebu.

“I believe that this Sugbuswak is returning back to God in gratitude, recognizing the gift and the giver of the gift — the gift of a growing faith which calls us now to prepare for the birthing and flowering of new dioceses here in Cebu,” Bishop Labajo said.

Should the new dioceses be approved, the Diocese of Cebu South will be in the City of Carcar with Saint Catherine of Alexandria parish church as cathedral.

The discussion on Sugbuswak was taken up in 2002 during the leadership of the late Archbishop Ricardo J. Cardinal Vidal. 

Palma announced of a feasibility study on the Sugbuswak on December 31, 2022. Afterwhich, an ad hoc committee was formed to study four aspects of the project - geography, demography, finances, and formation. 

In July 2023, a presentation of the plan was facilitated.

In December 2023, Bishop Marcelino Antonio Maralit, Jr. of the Diocese of Boac (Marinduque), chairman of the CBCP Episcopal Commission on Social Communications, said that an endorsement of the CBCP on the plan is yet to be issued. 

(With reports from Albert Aballe & Mark Regie Abella/GMA Regional TV Balitang Bisdak; Additional info courtesy: Sugbuswak & Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cebu)