De la Rosa’s appointment was confirmed two weeks ago by the Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education and Seminaries, the Vatican’s education department, according to an article posted on the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) website.

Before his appointment, De la Rosa had been appointed acting UST rector by Fr. Carlos Alfonso Aspiroz Costa, OP, the Master General of the Order of Preachers (OP), following the resignation of its three officials.

A former chairman of the Commission on Higher Educarion (CHED), Fr. De la Rosa completed his Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, magna cum laude, from the Dominican House of Studies in 1977, before obtaining his Master of Arts in Higher Religious Studies from UST, summa cum laude, in 1984.

His Doctor of Philosophy degree in Higher Religious Studies (magna cum laude) and its ecclesiastical equivalent, a Doctorate in Sacred Theology (magna cum laude), were obtained from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, in Belgium in 1988.

In 1990, he was also elected as UST rector and continued to a second term until 1998.

It was April last year when Aspiroz asked then UST Rector, Fr. Ernesto Arceo, OP, Vice Rector Fr. Juan Ponce, OP, and Fr. Edmund Nantes, OP, prior provincial of the Philippine Dominican Province, to resign from their posts, following a controversy in the development and expansion project of the UST Hospital.

Last November, Dominicans of UST St. Thomas priory elected De la Rosa as new rector in accordance with the UST’s constitution, and his name was sent to the Master General for approval.

By tradition, the Master of the Order endorses the chosen candidate to the Vatican’s Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education and Seminaries for final confirmation. Then, the Master General makes the official appointment.

De la Rosa’s installation as UST’s new rector is slated on June 10.