[2] The site of Montemaria, was originally a project of Mary Mother of the Poor Foundation of Roman Catholic priest Fernando Suarez.

[3] Suarez got the idea of developing a pilgrimage site from Hermilando Mandanas, a local politician and acquaintance whom he met in 2006, where the priest could perform his faith healing work.

Mandanas' company, Abacore Capital Holdings, Inc., donated the five-hectare land in Barangay Pagkilatan where the statue and the proposed pilgrimage site would stand, which would later be called Montemaria.

But in the following year, the project was later put on hold after Suarez moved to Cavite, where San Miguel Corporation (SMC) offered him a 33-hectare land in the town of Alfonso where he could set up a bigger pilgrimage site.

[4] The first building built at the Montemaria Shrine is the Santo Niño Chapel, a replica of the Church of Our Lady Victorious in Prague, prior to the 2010s.