Where divinity descends, humanity ascends

The Mt. Pinatubo Hidden Temple Shrine Foundation was set up in July 1992 to develop the mystically selected forest shrine park on the hilltop of Sitio Palan, San Marcelino to become an ecumenical “spiritual rehabilitation center,” with a farm and community integrated around it. Making up the Foundation Board are the late Cmdr. Fil Salonga (former SBMA chairman) as Foundation president, while I am chairman with Edgardo de Leon as corporate secretary and Felicito Payumo as treasurer. Rosemarie Arenas chairs the ways and means committee. Lovely Romulo, Consul Fortune Ledesma and Atty. Tony Salva are members.

Images of the sorrowing Lord

It was Good Friday in April of 1992, a year after Mt. Pinatubo erupted, while we were giving a final check to the Mt. Pinatubo Temple Shrine for the Easter Sunday Thanksgiving and Welcome ceremonies when two baby tornadoes (ipo-ipo) welcomed us. We saw them dance near the foothills of Mt. Pinatubo which miraculously registered the image of the sorrowing and bloody face of Our Lord – one directly faced us, the other showed His handsome profile, as He knelt down in prayer at the Garden of Gethsemane. Riding with us in the van was Kit Legaspi, the engineer assigned by Mayor Gordon to design and put together the shrine. He tried to make out the imprint of Jesus’ face but he could not. Each ipo-ipo twirled and aligned itself across Jesus’ facial impressions to help Kit see them. In a second, both “twisters” merged and formed a huge desert tornado.

Easter Sunday 1992 saw 10 busloads of pilgrims from Manila and Zambales crowded in this remote settlement of Palan, which nestles against eight-foot hills of Zambales mountain range to offer Thanksgiving to Our Lord and Blessed Mother for gifting the country the Mt. Pinatubo “Hidden Temple Shrine,” especially during these national crises, which damaged Pampanga, Tarlac and Zambales.

The two monuments stand on a 60-foot high hill within the third district of Congresswoman Katherine H. Gordon. During this time, she was preparing for her seventh back surgery at the Makati Medical Center. She recalled the 60-foot hill, the lowest among the eight others, which faces Mt. Pinatubo 13 miles away. Meantime, a visionary confirmed it as the right site. Little did she know then that this is the very hill where many years before the eruption, the Blessed Mother would stand, blessing the rice farmers and residents who lived around it. This was told to me by the young farmers’ wives, who would frequently dream of Mary.

The miracles

The miracles started during the construction of the Mt. Pinatubo Hidden Temple Shrine. First, the Blessed Mother gave a message to Punay Kabayao-Fernandez, mystic-artist that she wanted her eyes to be closed in prayer, rather than widely opened. When the statue was completed, Mrs. Fernandez received “inner instructions” to add a chalice with a Star of David emblem to be held by her left hand, and a purple candle on her right hand.

Second, a “baby tornado” was observed on the site when the statue of Our Lady was hoisted up on the hill with a 34-ton crane brought from the US Subic Naval Base. The tornado danced from the head to the foot of Our Lady, then descended the 101 steps down the hill, as if welcoming the Blessed Mother to the area. Third, spring water flowing behind the shrine become miraculous. The sickness and death among the settlers especially among the children  stopped. Fourth, no lahar flowed within the Mt. Pinatubo area in spite of the heavy rain descending the whole day.

On the same night of the installation, the hill shrine was illuminated by a celestial light. Six housewives observed that the Blessed Mother became alive and her gown turned silver as she waved her hand in blessing the farm residents. The 80- to 90-year-old evacuees who go up to pray every afternoon have all been relieved of their arthritis, asthma and pneumonia.

The passage of the SBMA bill

The most incredible miracle has been the passage of the Subic Free Port Authority Bill by both the Senate and Congress which refused to pass it between December and January. The Gordons and thousands of base workers have been praying to our Blessed Mother of Mt. Pinatubo for this. Many were surprised at the speed of the decision especially since there were 12 anti-bases senators in the Senate. The base workers continued to march to Malacañang since the President refused to give the final signature. Half a miracle occurred when he signed the bill but withheld permission to allow Mayor Richard Gordon to chair it, although the law specified so. The miracle was finally completed last week of March 1992, when Mayor Gordon was given the rightful authority to restore the Subic Free Port. It is a national symbol that Filipinos will always survive.

In March 1992, a month before Our Lord joined His Mother at the Shrine, other unique manifestations and messages were given. Our Lord helped rush the completion of the 13-foot high monument in front of the OB Montessori headquarters in Greenhills. While the face would have taken a whole week to do, the sculptor found that he was able to finish the face in an hour – a dimple even appeared on the left cheek. This happened late in the evening and Punay called Max and me from our residence in Greenhills to witness it. Jesus appeared looking like His Mother. Yet His manly looks were still apparent. Both statues have been “ensouled” from the time the steel rods were coiled and wired as their basic skeletons. Several photographs taken of them also manifest bright lights around them even in the darkness of the night.

‘Salubong,’ The Easter Sunday meeting of Mother Mary and her Son Jesus

One of our school artists with a clairvoyant gift saw and drew a series of illustrations of six special angels of the high order, accompanying the 10-wheeler truck which brought Our Lord to the Palan Shrine. As the payloader pulled up the truck over the 60-foot high hill, three angels hovered on each side of the truck. When the 34-ton crane for rough terrain from Subic Naval Base PWC hoisted up the statue all wrapped in thick sponge, the angels surrounded Him until He was gently laid on the cement pedestal behind Our Praying Blessed Mother.

(Part II – “The Altars Of The Nation”)

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