Ernest Escaler, chair of the Guadalupe Pilgrimage Committee that has made possible the ongoing tour of the pilgrim tilma of Our Lady of Guadalupe around the Philippines, has a wonderful way of explaining the appeal of the image. After all, the shrine in Mexico City is the most visited one in the world.
“It’s the only image of the Virgin Mary that she herself made,” he says, the wonder evident in his voice. “It’s like a selfie. All other images came from what people saw, what the children of Fatima saw, what Bernadette saw. Even in the case of the Divine Mercy, Jesus described how the image should look like.
“But this? No other image in the world came from her. So, there’s no question: She’s the author of this image.”
The pilgrim ‘tilma’ currently traveling around the Philippines (photo from Our Lady of Guadalupe – Philippine Pilgrimage 2026 Facebook page)
It’s a fascinating way to describe the miraculous representation, which, for those unfamiliar with the story, appeared on the tilma or cloak of Indian peasant Juan Diego in 1531, after Our Lady instructed him to fill it with roses as proof of her existence. Since then, studies of the image through the years have backed its supernatural nature. Most notably, Dr. Philip Serna Callahan, a biophysicist at the University of Florida and a NASA consultant, revealed that the tilma revealed no actual drawings or brush strokes and contained no substances known on this earth, and the fabric had not decayed in almost 500 years.
The image of St. Juan Diego that is accompanying the ‘tilma’ (photo from Our Lady of Guadalupe – Philippine Pilgrimage 2026 Facebook page)
“As I like to say, when you read the Acts of the Apostles, after the Holy Spirit descended on them, the next day, all of them went down and converted 2,000 people,” recounts Escaler, the renowned businessman behind Gourmet Farms Philippines, who also built The Sanctuary of St. Joseph, a retreat house on the farm grounds, and is a well-known Marian devotee. “Our Lady of Guadalupe, the image alone, over a six-year period, converted some 30,000 people a day among the Aztecs. They had to import priests because they couldn’t handle the baptisms!”
Escaler (seated center, in glasses) during festivities to welcome the image at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Makati (photo from Our Lady of Guadalupe – Philippine Pilgrimage 2026 Facebook page)
It was 2024 when Escaler, while in Los Angeles, received a call from the rector of the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, inviting President Bongbong Marcos to a private audience with the tilma.
The president had originally agreed to visit, but this was before problems like the flood control corruption scandals exploded, and so he had to change plans. But Our Lady was apparently insistent; the rector called and asked if they could instead bring a pilgrim tilma to the Philippines, in anticipation of the apparition’s 500th anniversary in 2031.
As Escaler told Catholic lay preacher and vlogger Adrian Milag in a YouTube interview on June 26 (https://youtu.be/aV3egt9PYNg?si=QERLbmCBNVOE2WW0), thus began the planning for what he called “a herculean effort” that kicked off last June 13 at the Manila Cathedral. “We are going to go to 60 churches in the Philippines. We are traveling over 10,000 kilometers by land. (The only flight involved was from Manila to Zamboanga, after the image left the National Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Makati last June 21.) We are traveling with three vehicles, a truck and two vans, with eight people.”
In fact, when the pilgrimage was confirmed, Escaler met with the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines to ask who would like to host the image, and received a chorus of “me, me, me” from the bishops—and the pilgrim tilma’s schedule was immediately filled.
The clincher is how Escaler doesn’t take credit for anything. “I don’t organize it for her. I am just facilitating it for her. Mama Mary is the one who invites people. It’s all her work.”
How does he explain the affinity Filipinos have for Mama Mary? “Well, if you ask me, I say, I think she’s calling them,” he tells us in a phone interview. “I think she’s coming here for a purpose. And God knows what that purpose is. I hope it’s what we all hope for—a real conversion of our entire system. She’s the one knocking on doors! She wants to do something here. And it can only be good, right?”
Escaler, who grew up in a religious family devoted to Our Lady of Lourdes, admits candidly that he was not drawn to Our Lady of Guadalupe as a child because he simply didn’t like her image. It was only when he learned about Marian consecration that he realized the history and the significance of La Guadalupana, as she is also known in Mexico.
Festivities in front of the Manila Cathedral for Our Lady’s arrival (photo from Our Lady of Guadalupe – Philippine Pilgrimage 2026 Facebook page)
Meanwhile, he has borne witness to people crying in front of the image as they venerate her. “Even the president was kinikilabutan,” he reports, as President Marcos Jr. and First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos attended the opening mass for Our Lady of Guadalupe’s Philippine Pilgrimage 2026 at the Manila Cathedral. The president even led the Act of Consecration and Entrustment of the country to Our Lady of Guadalupe. “Everybody was stepping up, there have been no major challenges,” says Escaler. “Things have been very well organized.” As of this writing, the image is doing the rounds of Mindanao and the Visayas, and Escaler is set to join the visit in Ozamiz, Cebu, and other stops.
We ask Escaler about the idea that some Filipinos are elevating their devotion to Mama Mary to the level of a cult, separate from praying to Jesus Christ. “I don’t think so. In the end, we know the Holy Mass is the most important thing. Her main role is to bring people to Jesus. That’s what she was tasked to do, at the foot of the cross. When she listens to Jesus, she calls others to Him, as well.”
Also important is how Escaler is calling for donations to support the six-month pilgrimage, which will go on until December. The response has been heartwarming, he says, because they are not relying on big corporate sponsors (although the committee did ask, and didn’t get any response). Instead, little girls are making P25 deposits, and they’re receiving P50, P100, P500, P5,000. “It makes you feel like it’s the people who are actually paying for the gas for her to travel. That’s why we’d rather get donations from individuals, so it means something.”
While a schedule has been put up on the Facebook page of Our Lady of Guadalupe – Philippine Pilgrimage 2026, dates may still change, so please check the site for updates.
As Escaler reiterates good-naturedly, “Our Lady is here to do something. Suspense!”
To help support expenses during the pilgrimage, deposits may be made to the account of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines Inc., Union Bank account no. 0016-8000-7650.
