Carmelo D. F. Morelos, "'Go… Make Disciples!' – A Pastoral Letter on the Fourth Centenary of the Archdioceses of Manila, Cebu, Cáceres, Nueva Segovia," Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, January 29, 1994, accessed September 6, 2014, http://cbcponline.net/v2/?p=8078
The religious superiors, in this case the Augustinians in Cebu, functioned as ordinaries in mission territories with no diocese through the papal bull Omnimodam auctoritatem nostram made by Pope Adrian VI. Thus, consequently making the first Augustinian superiors as Prelates of Cebu. Their prelacy are more historical than canonical. The modern equivalent of this is a Territorial Superior. See more in gcatholic.org.
The Philippine Islands 1493–1803, vol. 23, eds. Emma H. Blair, James A. Robertson (Cleveland: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1903), 209. "In April of the year 1565, there was founded in Zebu (afterward being transferred to Manila) the church and ecclesiastical community of these islands; and its ordinary jurisdiction was allotted to the superiors of the Order of St. Augustine, who were the founders and apostles of this kingdom; they held that dignity up to the year of [15]77".
Bibliography on Legazpi and Urdaneta, Isacio R. Rodriguez, Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints(Ateneo de Manila University:1965).
Bartolomé de Letona, OSF (1662), "Description of the Filipinas Islands" in The Philippine Islands, 1493–1803, vol. 34, eds. Emma H. Blair and James A. Robertson (Cleveland: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1906), 208. "The Order of St. Augustine entered the islands in the year [1]565; its first superior, and first prelate of all the islands was Fray Andres de Urdaneta – a Vascongado,40 and a son of the convent and province of Mexico; he was the apostle who unfurled the gospel banner, and he planted the faith in the island of Zebu' and others."
Pope Pius XI, Apostolic Constitution separating some dioceses from the ecclesiastical province of Manila to form the new ecclesiastical province of Cebu Romanorum Pontificum semper (April 28, 1934), Acta Apostolicae Sedis 27 (1935), pp.263–264. PROVINCIA ECCLESIASTICA MANILANA DISMEMBRATIO ET NOVA CAEBUANA PROVINCIA ERIGITUR.
