The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has announced the dedication and open house dates for the Bacolod Philippines Temple.
On May 31, 2026, Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will dedicate the Bacolod Temple. The 10 a.m. dedication session is scheduled to be broadcast to all units in the temple district, but will be rebroadcast that day at 2 p.m.
The dedication ceremony will follow an open house from April 16 to May 2, 2026, excluding Sundays. A media day will also be held on April 13, and invited guests will tour the temple on April 14-15, 2026.
This makes the Bacolod Temple the sixth House of the Lord to be consecrated in the Philippines.
These dates were first published in a Dec. 15 news release on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
Bacolod is not the only city where a Philippine temple dedication ceremony will be held this year. Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will dedicate the Alabang Philippines Temple on January 18, 2026.
And just two weeks ago, the dedication date for another Philippine temple was announced. The Davao Philippines Temple is scheduled to be dedicated on May 3, 2026 by Elder Dale G. Renlund of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
With the inauguration date set for the Bacolod Temple, the number of temples operating in the Philippines will increase three to six times in the first half of 2026.
About this temple
The one-story Bacolod Temple is located on 12.3 acres and is approximately 26,700 square feet. Approximately 18,000 square feet of ancillary buildings, including user housing, an arrivals center, and a distribution center, would also be constructed. Bacolod is located on Negros Island in the central Visayas.
President Russell M. Nelson announced the establishment of a house of the Lord in Bacolod, Philippines, during the women’s session of October 2019 general conference. This was one of the eight temples he announced on October 5, 2019.
Thereafter, a groundbreaking ceremony for the Bacolod Temple was held on December 11, 2021, presided over by Elder Taniera B. Wacolo. Elder Wacolo, a General Authority Seventy and Philippine Area President at the time, also devoted himself to the site and the construction process.
“This temple will stand not only as a symbol of our membership in the Church, but also as a sign of our faith in an afterlife and a sacred step toward eternal glory for us and our families,” he said.
church in the philippines
Of the 14 Lord’s Houses in the Philippines, three are dedicated, three are scheduled for dedication, two are under construction, and six are in the planning stage.
Currently in operation are the Manila Temple (dedicated in 1984), the Cebu City Temple (2010), and the Urdaneta Temple (2024).
As previously mentioned, dedication ceremonies are scheduled for three temples in the Philippines: Alabang Temple (January 18, 2026), Davao Temple (May 3, 2026), and Bacolod Temple (May 31, 2026).
Two other temples are currently under construction in the Philippines. Ground will be broken in August 2024 in Cagayan de Oro and in January 2025 in Tacloban City.
The final six Philippine temples are planned for Naga City (to be announced in 2022), Santiago City (2022), Tuguegarao City (2023), Iloilo City (2023), Laoag City (2023), and San Jose del Monte City (2025).
Since the Philippines was opened for missionary work in 1961, church growth in this country has been among the fastest growing in the world. By 1970, the church was based on eight major islands in the Philippines. In 1974, Elder Ezra Taft Benson, then of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, organized the first stake in the Philippines.
The country is currently home to nearly 900,000 Latter-day Saints in approximately 1,325 congregations. The Philippines, with its large number of Church members, has the fourth largest Latter-day Saint population in the world.
