Archbishop Charles Brown, the apostolic nuncio in the Philippines, said he had a “very productive, encouraging, and positive discussion” with Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., the nation’s newly elected president.

The Philippine bishops’ news service had earlier published an op-ed lamenting Marcos’s victory.

Ferdinand Marcos, the victor’s father, was the nation’s authoritarian leader from 1965 to 1986. The nation’s bishops were instrumental in the brief People Power Revolution that led to the end of the Marcos regime.