The continuing presence of our Lord and His Mother in Phl since 1984

Part II

The first shrine of Our Lord, the Blessed Mother, and St. Francis in Cadiz, Negros Occidental was spiritually requested for the Kabayaos’ Hacienda Faraon and Hacienda Tamsi in 1984, during the sugar disaster and the destructive rebel movement, which impoverished Negros Occidental. Even before 1986, the Holy Ones requested us, through Punay Kabayao Fernandez, to have the second shrine in Greenhills. To commemorate the 1986 EDSA Revolution the Grotto of Our Lord Jesus of Sacrifice and Our World Mother was set up within the O.B. Montessori quadrangle. By Christmas of 1993 the Holy Family Temple Shrine was added in front of the school building complex showing the 12-year-old Lord Jesus preaching to the Scribes and Pharisees in the temple of Jerusalem witnessed by Blessed Mary and Joseph. The main sculptor and painter was psychic Pempe Floriano, since then he became the artist-in-residence of the O.B. Montessori Center.

1986 – San Francesco, Niño Bonito as a preschooler

In 1986, the silver anniversary of O.B. Montessori Center, St. Francis of Assisi and Niño Bonito Jesus were sculpted upon request of the Holy Ones. Seated on a gold-brass chair, lifelike four-year-old Jesus wearing an OBMC preschool uniform was carved in wood. The statue of San Francesco, with messenger pigeons on his shoulders and hand was erected along Annapolis Street in Greenhills with his hands raised to bless passing pedestrians. By 1998 when the Italian restaurant of the school, the La Dolce Fontana was constructed to complement the Instituto Culinario college, the mystical frescoes of St. Francis and St. Claire blessing 200 animals was painted on the wall of the Ristorante La Dolce Fontana.

1990 to 1992 – the prayer room, the Mt. Pinatubo Hidden Temple Shrine

Meantime, 1990 marked the Gulf War. The Holy Ones requested that our Lord of Wisdom and Compassion, and Our Lady of Liberty and Hope, the latter wearing the Star of David be sculpted this time in wood for the prayer room in the second floor, where a continuous flow of miracles occur to this day.

Between 1991 and 1992, when the Mt. Pinatubo volcano erupted, Our Lord of Love and Redemption statue, 13 ft. high, weighing six tons accompanied by Praying Blessed Mother nine ft. tall, weighing three tons were requested for the Mt. Pinatubo Hidden Temple Shrine. Standing at Sitio Palan, San Marcelino this faced the volcano 20 km. away. Pempe Floriano and his assistant, Billy Tenolete, miraculously finished both statues in three months – Blessed Mary by Christmas time and Resurrected Jesus just before Easter Sunday. The late Punay Kabayao Fernandez who always supervised the sculpting of the mystical art works, revealed that it was the spirit of a great Italian Renaissance sculptor and painter who overshadowed them. As a parting gift of the Americans, the last Subic Bay Admiral Tom Mercer helped install them using a giant 35-ton crane, pay loader and welder with the PWC crew of workers led by Capt. John Lehman and Engr. Hal Driver. Punay, clairvoyant artist Annie McDowall and I would stay at the Philseco Shipyard dormitory in Subic courtesy of then chairman, Capt. Fil Salonga, Lea’s father, who was also the president of the Mt. Pinatubo Hidden Temple Shrine Foundation Board.

1993 – The Lord of Sixteen Summers on a stallion

The Lord Prince on a stallion was the Christmas gift to the nation in 1993. The tenth mystical work, 18-ft high holy monument show the Lord of Sixteen Summers (or the Lord of Love) riding high on a huge white stallion, Tempo, was erected in front of the O.B. Montessori headquarters. These two official titles refer to the Lord of Creation and His horse, a look alike of the white Spanish horses in Vienna, Austria. They stand on a large pedestal box, which is as colorful as a treasure box. Symbols of the Wheel of Justice, the Well of Knowledge, Jar of Spiritual life, a “golden bell” for Our Lord’s divine call, three mystical roses surround the pedestal. 

The shrine blessings continue to flow

Between 1996 and 1998 the OBMC College started to operate offering two courses, the Montessori Preschool Teacher Training course and a four-year-old course in Culinary Service. Eventually, two-year Proficiency courses for each specialization were added together with an apprenticeship with the Italian Ristorante La Dolce Fontana along Annapolis Street.

I continued to work in the UNESCO National Commission from 1986, when I was elected to the Executive Board of UNESCO Paris, until 2002. From that year to 2010, I became Secretary-General of the UNESCO National Commission, initiating projects to meet the goal of quality education for the UNMDG 2015 by introducing the EFA-DAKAR pilot Pagsasarili project in the Pulung Bulu public school at Angeles Pampanga in partnership with DepEd Region 3 offices and the teacher training state colleges of Leyte, Cadiz and Mati, Davao, we have helped establish 156 affordable Pagsasarili Montessori preschools in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

Alongside this effort, since 1986 to 2010, my UNESCO Commissioners and I exchanged visits with ten Southeast Asian countries surveying their comprehensive educational systems while seeking their recognition for our proposal to be Category 2 Center as Southeast Asia Center for Lifelong Learning for Sustainable Development (SEA-CLLSD). Finally at the 2010 General Conference in Paris, UNESCO DG Koichiro Matsuura and the Executive Board officially approved SEA-CLLSD of the Philippines as Category 2 center.

A wisp of wind, a glimmer of gold, the hand of God of Love enfolds. Raindrops of hope, dewdrops of care, gentle reminders, God’s everywhere.

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