Man walks 36 days from Bukidnon to attend Papal Mass in Tacloban

MANILA – A sixty-six-year-old man claims to have walked for over a month from his home in Bukidnon to Tacloban City to be part of the Mass celebrated by Pope Francis.

Antolin Adlawan, from Kitaotao in Bukidnon, says he walked for a total of 36 days from his residence in Bukidnon, keeping on egoal in mind: to participate in the Papal Massin Tacloban.

He arrived at the Tacloban Airport on Friday, after walking a total of 968 kilometers, across four regions, 32 towns and eight cities; according to a report from Noel Alamar, dzMM.

The report said that Adlawan sought refuge in churches, where he would spend the night, and continue walking the next morning.

Calling his trip on foot a “spiritual journey,” Adlawan says that numerous passersby offered him some money but he politely declined these offers.

Adlawan spent Christmas and New Year on the road, and was exposed to the elements, as well, when tropical storm Seniang lashed the Visayas.

The man revealed a special intention which he will offer during his attendance at the Mass: that his now 26-year-old daughter – whom he claims was miraculously healed of leukemia after he thrice reenacted the Passion of Christ – continue to enjoy good health.

Adlawan recounted that last year, he carried an oversized cross all the way from Bukidnon to the office of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) in Manila, with the same intent. He journeyed for nearly two months.

Pope Francis begins his trip to Tacloban today by celebrating the Holy Mass in the city’s airport; with thousands upon thousands of people expected to attend. He will then proceed to the archbishop’s residence in Palo, Leyte, to have lunch with 30 survivors of Yolanda and the magnitude-7.2 earthquake that hit Bohol in 2013. After that, he is scheduled to bless the Pope Francis Center for the Poor in Palo, where he will meet around 50 persons with disabilities, orphans, and the elderly.

Photo of pilgrim Antolin Adlawan (posted to Twitter by ABS-CBN News)