MUNTINLUPA CITY, Philippines — Aquilino Andaca Jr. was 7 years old in 1970 when his parents were baptized in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Makati Branch, which met in the Buendia chapel in the metro Manila area in the Philippines. The following year, young Aquilino turned 8 and was also baptized.
A few years later, it became a ward. When he was a young man, the ward split, Andaca recalled in an interview with the Church News.
Other wards were organized as the Church grew. And then the area had its own stake. Now, there’s more than one stake in that area.
“I don’t know how it happened so fast,” said 63-year-old Andaca. He listed wards and stakes where he and his wife, Elizabeth Andaca, have lived and the congregations have grown and been divided multiple times.
“Nowadays, the Church is growing so quickly that you cannot see the grass grow,” he said.
Andaca and his wife, Elizabeth Andaca, have been serving as temple workers in the Manila Philippines Temple for the past year. They live in the Daan Hari Ward of the Bacoor Philippines Stake, and it is one of the stakes that will be part of the Alabang Philippines Temple district when the house of the Lord is dedicated on Sunday, Jan. 18, by Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
The Alabang temple in Muntinlupa City will be the fourth house of the Lord in the Philippines, the second in the metro Manila area and one of 14 total in operation, under construction or in planning in the country. Around the world, it will be the 213th operating temple.
The operating houses of the Lord are the Manila (dedicated in 1984), Cebu City (2010) and Urdaneta (2024) temples.
But the Alabang temple won’t be the country’s newest temple for long. Two more houses of the Lord — in Davao and Bacolod — are scheduled to be dedicated on May 3 and May 31, respectively.
There are two more temples under construction — for Cagayan de Oro, with ground broken in August 2024, and Tacloban City, ground broken January 2025.
Six are in planning — for Naga (announced 2022), Santiago (2022), Tuguegarao City (2023), Iloilo (2023), Laoag (2023) and San Jose del Monte (2025).
“We are so blessed to have so many temples,” Aquilino Andaca said.
‘Heaven has come closer to home’
Metro Manila — officially the National Capital Region — includes 16 cities and a municipality and is on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on the northern island of Luzon. The Manila temple is in Quezon City on the northern side of metro Manila. The house of the Lord in Alabang is in Muntinlupa, on the southern end of metro Manila.
The Manila and Alabang temples are about 15 miles (or about 25km) apart. However, coming from southern Luzon island means navigating traffic through several cities in metro Manila.
Parañaque Philippines Stake President Belmin E. Misalucha said that it can take two hours or more to get to the Manila temple from Parañaque City, which is in southern metro Manila.
“Having the Alabang temple nearby feels like heaven has come closer to home. It reduces the struggle of distance and traffic, providing a peaceful refuge from the busy streets of metro Manila,” he said. “It is a beautiful reminder of the Lord’s love for us.”
Elizabeth Andaca said traveling to the Manila temple from their home just west of metro Manila can take about an hour to an hour and half — in good traffic. “If the traffic is heavy, it would take us more than two hours,” she said.
When she and her husband begin as temple workers in the Alabang Philippines Temple on Tuesday, Jan. 20, it will take them about 30 minutes, she said. They also volunteered during the public open house.
Bacoor Philippines Stake President Wilfredo Rellora said he has already seen blessings of a temple closer to the people in their stake.
“Such a prime location that is very accessible to all members in south Manila is such a great blessing,” President Rellora said.
Their stake had around a dozen temple workers in the Manila temple, he said. “When we set a goal to increase that number to 50, we were able to surpass that goal in just a couple of months. The members felt joy and rejoicing to have our temple, our house of the Lord.”
President Misalucha also noted that while the Alabang Philippines Temple is in a major business district, “the contrast between the quiet, sacred temple and the busy city around it reminds us to ‘be still.’”
The house of the Lord features the white jasmine flower, or sampaguita, the national flower of the Philippines, in the décor — “making the temple feel uniquely Filipino.”
“It shows that the Church in southern metro Manila has truly come of age,” he said.
Also, the youth have more opportunities to attend the temple, President Rellora said. They would need to schedule appointments for youth to do baptisms several months in advance.
“The youth will now be able to visit the temple and do temple work during weekdays or weeknights every week instead of just twice a year in the Manila temple,” he said.
Elder Bryan G. Borela, an Area Seventy, noted how temple attendance can help strengthen the testimonies of youth. “The new temple will be such a blessing to the youth as leaders now, to their families and to the communities,” he said.
President Misalucha said he hopes that because the Alabang temple is more accessible to those in their area that the youth can make temple service a regular part of their lives.
Attending the temple “acts as a ‘Liahona,’ helping them understand their identity as children of God and giving them a sense of purpose as they serve their ancestors,” he said, referring to the compass in the Book of Mormon that guided Lehi’s family.
The Church in the Philippines
2026 marks the 65th anniversary of the Church receiving legal recognition in the Philippines in 1961. That same year, then-Elder Gordon B. Hinckley, an Assistant to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, rededicated the country for missionary work in April.
The prayer of the future president of the Church included “that there shall be many thousands who shall receive this message and be blessed thereby.”
The first missionaries in the nation of more than 7,100 islands date back to 1898, when two servicemen Willard Call and George Seaman, were set apart as missionaries before being deployed to the country during the Spanish-American War. After World War II, Maxine Grimm was in the Philippines with the Red Cross in 1945 and introduced the gospel to Aniceta Pabilona Fajardo, who was the first Filipino to join the Church in the islands.
Meetings for servicemen were organized during the 1950s. At Clark Air Base on Aug. 21, 1955, then-Elder Joseph Fielding Smith of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who was later Church President, dedicated the Philippines for the preaching of the gospel. Then when the Church received legal recognition in 1961, full-time missionaries were allowed to enter the country.
It was then part of the Southern Far East Mission with other countries. When it was divided in 1967, the Philippines Mission was created. The first stake in the country was organized in 1973 and the 100th stake in 2010.
Now, there are 30 missions in the Philippines. Of the 55 new missions that will be created in July, five are in the Philippines.
The country is now home to around 900,000 Latter-day Saints in over 1,300 local congregations. With its high number of Church members, the Philippines has the fourth-largest population of Latter-day Saints in the world.
Elder Borela said having more temples in the Philippines is a blessing for all members there.
“It will also be an opportunity for members to increase their temple devotion, understand God’s plan even more and strengthen their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,” he said.
Correction: An earlier version noted there were 26 missions in the Philippines. There are 30.
