The Davao Philippines Temple is scheduled to be dedicated May 3, 2026, by Elder Dale G. Renlund of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
The dedication ceremony — which will be broadcast to all units in the temple district — will be 10 a.m. local time. It will then be rebroadcast at 2 p.m.
Leading up to the dedication, a public open house will run from Thursday, March 26, through Friday, April 10, 2026, excluding Sundays. A media day will also take place March 23, and invited guests will tour the house of the Lord from March 24 to March 25, 2026.
These dates were announced by the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, according to a Dec. 1 news release on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
Of the 14 temples announced, under construction or operating in the Philippines, the Davao temple is the southernmost in the country.
Three and a half months prior to the Davao temple’s dedication, the Alabang Philippines Temple will be dedicated Jan. 18, 2026, by Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
This will make the Davao temple the fifth dedicated in the country, and the first dedicated in the same year as another Philippines house of the Lord.
It will be the first temple on the island of Mindanao. A second for the island, the Cagayan de Oro Philippines Temple, has been in its construction phase since an August 2024 groundbreaking. Both temples were announced in 2018.
Planned as a two-story structure of 18,450 square feet, the Davao temple stands on a 2.7-acre site at Ma-a Road and Anahaw Road in Davao City, Philippines. Also constructed was a new meetinghouse — replacing the existing meetinghouse on site — along with patron and temple presidency housing.
About this temple and the Church in the Philippines
The late Church President Russell M. Nelson announced a house of the Lord for Davao, Philippines, on Oct. 7, 2018. It was one of 12 temple locations he identified in that general conference, with 10 of them outside the continental United States.
On Nov. 14, 2020, ground was broken for the Davao temple. This ceremony was limited to a handful of individuals due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.
Presiding over the groundbreaking was Elder Taniela B. Wakolo — a General Authority Seventy and then president of the Philippines Area. He also dedicated the site and construction process, saying, “We pray that this temple, even while being constructed, will bless the lives of all who live in the vicinity and those who pass by, by increasing their hope and peace through Christ.”
Of the 14 houses of the Lord in the Philippines, three are dedicated, two are scheduled for dedication, three are under construction, and six are in planning stages.
In operation are the Manila (dedicated in 1984), Cebu City (2010) and Urdaneta (2024) temples.
Before the Davao temple’s May 2026 dedication, the Alabang Philippines Temple will be dedicated Jan. 18, 2026.
The three temples currently under construction in the Philippines are for Bacolod (ground broken December 2021), Cagayan de Oro (August 2024) and Tacloban City (January 2025).
The final six Philippines temples are planned for the following cities: Naga (announced 2022), Santiago (2022), Tuguegarao City (2023), Iloilo (2023), Laoag (2023) and San Jose del Monte (2025).
Since the Philippines opened for missionary work in 1961, Church growth in the country has been among the fastest in the world. By 1970, the Church had a presence on eight major Philippine islands. In 1974, then-Elder Ezra Taft Benson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles organized the first stake in the Philippines.
The country is now home to around 900,000 Latter-day Saints in around 1,400 congregations. With its high number of Church members, the Philippines has the fourth-largest population of Latter-day Saints in the world.
