During the year,the program to promote the Lolo Uweng Shrine in both global and national levels was intensified.

Msgr. Jose D. Barrion attended the 2nd World Congress on the Pastoral Care of Pilgrimages and Shrines held on September 27-30 at Santiago de Compostela in Spain. This Congress was attended by about 300 delegates from 65 countries around the world. He held inter-personal discussions with fellow delegates from shrines relevant to Jesus in the Holy Sepulchre and distributed copies of the shrine brochure to all the delegates.

Lolo Uweng Shrine

Since assuming his post as Shrine Rector, Msgr. Barrion has consistently promoted Lolo Uweng Shrine in local and regional assemblies of shrines and pilgrimages. These included the National Congress in Seoul Korea in November 2005, the Asian Congress in Nagasaki, Japan in 2007 and the National Congress in Vietnam on November 10-15, 2008 where he made a powerpoint presentation on the history and phenomenal growth of the devotion to the miraculous icon of Jesus on the Holy Sepulchre in Landayan.

Also during the year, the entire staff of the Laguna Provincial Tourism Office (PTO), led by Provincial Tourism Officer Gina Austria, went to Landayan in August as part of their annual familiarization tour.  This led to the inclusion of the Lolo Uweng Shrine in the list of Laguna’s most popular religious tourism destinations.

Last November 11,some 100 members of  the Philippine Travel Agencies Association (PTAA) all coming from Metro Manila, selected Landayan as the first stop of a day-long Laguna familiarization tour. PTAA members are in the business of organizing group pilgrimages for local and foreign tourists and they have now included the Lolo Uweng Shrine as part of a religious tourism itinerary in Laguna and Southern Luzon.