Who does not need a miracle?

In 1604, a beautiful, dark-skinned Virgin Mary, with jet-black hair, landed on the shores of Lal-lo, a town in Cagayan Valley.

The statue came from Macau, which at that time was a colony of Portugal, one of Europe’s Catholic countries. Because of tribal wars and the many changes in Cagayan’s political landscape, the beautiful statue was then moved to Piat, a municipality in Tuguegarao. There were stories of the miraculous healing powers of Our Lady, but then again, these stories were either lost in the archives or just got forgotten through the centuries. But in 2003, a miracle in the life of Olive Pascual, wife of then Mayor Florante Pascual of Lal-lo, happened and the stories of the Virgin’s miraculous powers were again revived.

Recently, I bumped into my long-time friend Bangs Zaldivar, (sister of present Mayor Olive Pascual), who asked me to go with her to Tuguegarao on a pilgrimage to our Lady of Piat. When she noticed my reluctance, she asked, “Don’t you want to experience a miracle in your life? It may not come right away, but I assure you, it will come.”

She then proceeded to tell me the story of the miracles in her sister’s life, the well-loved mayor of Lal-lo, Cagayan Valley.

In July 2003, Olive, who was then national secretary of the National Federation of Women’s Clubs of the Philippines, was busy organizing the 400th anniversary of Our Lady of Piat. During a meeting with the organizing committee, Olive voiced out her misgivings to Archbishop Diosdado Palamayan about the celebration being held in Piat instead of Lal-lo where the Lady first landed and was enshrined for many decades.

The archbishop saw her point and Olive was granted her wish: the 400th anniversary of Our Lady of Piat would be finally held in Lal-lo in Jan. 15, 2004.

On Dec.18, 2003, a few weeks before the celebration, Olive had an asthma attack caused by the incense at the misa de gallo she attended in the morning.

Her husband, then Mayor Florante Pascual, and their two daughters attended the Christmas party of the municipio but decided to leave early when they heard what happened to Olive.

Upon seeing him, Olive threw her nebulizer, embraced him tightly and became unconscious. Florante called his dentist neighbor, who had a visitor, a lady doctor from St. Luke’s Medical Center.

The lady doctor tried to revive Olive by pumping her chest but to no avail. The nearest hospital was Peneyra Clinic where the doctors, upon seeing Olive’s condition, just shook their heads. Olive had no pulse, her knuckles had turned black and she was not breathing anymore.

It was Olive and Florante’s 23rd wedding anniversary and it was almost Christmastime. Mayor Florante desperately prayed to Our Lady of Piat. The doctor was about to pronounce Olive dead when she started to move her fingers and toes, then jerked and sat upright. “Please, give me water. I am so thirsty and tired. I walked so very far away,” she pleaded.

When it was safe to finally move her, Olive was brought to St. Paul’s Hospital in Tuguegarao where she was placed in the ICU for several days. On her return home, she had a difficult time walking and it took all of three months before she regained normal faculties of her feet and legs.

This was her story: She (her spirit) traveled a very long distance where she passed by people dressed in white. She continued walking, but when she was about to reach her destination, there was a heavy door, which she tried to open. She could not open it, and a beautiful dark lady dressed in an embroidered robe appeared and said in the Ibanag dialect, “It’s not your time yet to enter this door. Come my child, you still have a lot to do in your life. “

At this point, Olive’s spirit joined her body before she could be pronounced dead by the doctors.

Even the doctors could not believe the miracle that they saw: her lifeless body coming back to life. Her husband knelt down   in thanksgiving and to this day is a devotee of our Lady of Piat.

Shortly after her near-death experience, Olive started to prepare for the 400th anniversary of the Virgin of Piat’s arrival in Lal-lo. She and her husband made sure that Lal-lo would not spare the slightest detail to give the Virgin of Piat the highest homage that is due Her.

The Second Miracle

Olive, since her near-death experience, uses the picture of the Lady of Piat as screen saver of her cell phone. In April of 2008, Olive took a car ride home to Cagayan from Manila. She opted to travel at night. She decided to pray to our Lady (while looking at the Lady’s photo in her cell phone) before closing her eyes to sleep. She particularly prayed for a safe trip back home. She did not forget to put on her seat belt. After several hours of the road, a rumbling awakened her. Before she knew it, her car turned several times over and landed in a ravine. All the contents of her bag flew out of her car, except one item: her cell phone, with the image of the Lady of Piat.

Can you guess the ending to this story? Olive was unscathed, her staffers were slightly injured and she is alive, healthy, and well to this day. She credits this miraculous incident to her precious Lady of Piat.

In spite of her popularity with the people of Cagayan, Olive is not running for reelection. Instead, she is running for board member of District 1 of Cagayan where she feels she can serve Cagayan’s constituents more because instead of just serving one municipality, she will be serving 10 municipalities.

As for me, after hearing about the miracles in Mayor Olive’s life, I opted to join my friend Bangs on her pilgrimage to the town of Piat. It was such a profound, spiritual experience to meet Our Lady of Piat and to ask her for some miracles in the lives of the many people I hold close to my heart. All of us could use a miracle at one point or another in our lives!