Since the feastday of Our Lady of Lourdes on February 11, residents of Panaugao in Barangay 5, Silay City, have been praying the rosary at the Barangay sang Birhen Shrine of Fiat Village every evening.

This is the place where, on that day, three-year-old Joebert Lilia was ran over by a van, and did not only survive, but came out without any injury.

According to Silay Parish priest, Fr. Felix Paquin, lay minister Ricardo Villanueva of the San Diego Parish went to see couple Noel and Marlene Lilia in the Barangay at about 7:30 a.m. and parked his vehicle, described as a small van, near the shrine.

After talking with the Lilias, Villanueva said he got into his vehicle and started it, but finding some difficulty in moving off, he made a U-turn in front of the statue of the Blessed Virgin, before backing up.

As he was backing up, he said he felt that he had hit something big and hard "Like a stone" and then heard Marlene shouting "My child has been killed! My child is dead!"

It was found out that the little boy had clung to the back of the vehicle and fell when it reversed, so that the rear tire rolled over him.

However, when Villanueva and the parents pulled the child from under the vehicle, he was crying, but did not appear to have any injuries, and there was no blood or any cuts or bruises on his body!

Nevertheless, the child was brought to the Jose M. Locsin Memorial Hospital in Silay City and x-rays were taken of his body. Fr. Pasquin, who saw the report on the x-ray findings quoted it as saying: "No radiography evidence of fracture".

And that is why residents of the Gawad Kalinga site at Fiat Village gather to pray before the statue of the Birhen sang Barangay every evening. They believe the Blessed Mother had rescued little Joel as a gift on her feastday.*NRL

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