FORMER Education Secretary Brother Armin Luistro was elected as the new superior general of the French-founded institute of the Brothers of Christian Schools.

Luistro becomes the Lasallian Brothers’ 28th superior general and the first Filipino to hold the position.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines said that the elections took place on May 18 at the religious institute’s 46th general chapter in Rome. This comes eight years after the election of the Bro. Robert Schieler, F.S.C.’s administration in 2014.

In a Facebook post, the De La Salle Brothers Philippines congratulated Luistro and asked the public to pray for him for his new role.

“Our profound prayers of thanksgiving are with you, our dear Brother, as you continue to respond to God’s call to be of service to all Lasallians as our Superior General,” DLSP said.

“We likewise ask our Philippine Lasallian Family to keep Brother Armin and all our Brothers in your prayers as we seek to build new paths to transform lives,” it added.

An educator with more than 34 years in both public and private sectors, Luistro joined the La Salle Scholasticate, the academic training center of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, in Manila in April 1979 while studying at De La Salle University.

He received the religious habit in October 1981, professed his first religious vows in October 1982 and his final vows in May 1988.

He started his teaching career at De La Salle Lipa in Batangas, where he worked as a religion teacher, class counsellor and campus minister from 1983 to 1986.

In August 2000, he co-founded with Indonesian Bishop Josef Suwatan of Manado, the De La Salle Catholic University in Manado, now known as De La Salle University-Indonesia.

Luistro served as the president of DLSU Manila from 2004 to 2010 before being appointed as Education Secretary under the administration of late President Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino III from 2010 to 2016.