Although Roxas presented no evidence whatsoever other than personal testimony from many of his associates all of whom had banded together as the "Golden Buddha Corporation" which existed only to pursue this lawsuit they somehow managed to win the case, and were awarded over 40 billion dollars. Rights and reuse information. As the 25 May 1993 golden buddha Supreme Court trial approached, Roxas had been instructed to keep a low profile. xb```Vvk>c`0p s*9yZJa`Xl Q|bg7633;,3i Valmores was entrusted with detailed maps of each of the 175 treasure sites, a privilege that President Marcos would later exploit. Europe and others push for a standard lunar time zone, Bola Tinubu, the declared winner of Nigerias presidential election, appeals for unity, A 5,000-year-old restaurant highlights Iraqs archaeological renaissance, Chicago Mayor Lightfoot ousted; Vallas, Johnson in runoff. This guy is a celebrated rock star in the Philippines, and there were posters of him all over campus. The Japanese, in particular, were notorious for this. Within hours Roxas was dead. The six-hundred-pound gorilla at the site was a guy whose mother had been alive when the Japanese had arrived and asked if they could create a tunnel complex in their back garden for the purpose of depositing large quantities of boxes. 0000000796 00000 n Years after his disappearance, he was assumed to be dead. He heard of what the locals called Second World War ghost ships; large Japanese freighters that arrived in the evening and, after unloading countless boxes into a tunnel system, had disappeared by daybreak. As he reflected on the significance of his experience, I remember thinking once more that I just wanted to leave. Today, only $1.4 million has been paid out to the Roxas estate. The group fled the country in July, 1978, and did not return until late last year. Andrew Gough. Andrew Gough. On the contrary, this young man was conspicuously well informed and appeared to possess some highly classified information. Inspecting the Baguio Hospital artefacts in the Roger Roxas Museum Cathcart proceeded to tell me in his gentle manner how forthright and convincing Roxas was, and what a surprising amount of evidence there was to support his claims. His team went and searched and dug but never found anything. Marcos had them tortured until they gave up the location of the treasure, whereupon he took it all, thus becoming fabulously wealthy. Amelia did as the dream-induced spirit encounter with Roxas instructed. Twice a day I climb into each of the sites that we are excavating to check for cyanide, he added in his authoritative Austrian accent. After all, they are man made; Japanese made, I muttered to myself. Andrew Gough. We stopped on the outskirts of town in front of an old schoolhouse. They were not going to give up their secrets to a production team with hi-tech equipment and a $1 million an episode budget, who were on location for a week to excavate. Seagrave describes the event like the master storyteller that he was: As the evening progressed, they drank great quantities of sake, sang patriotic songs and shouted Banzai (long life) over and over. I was amazed. Bizarrely, the non-believer of a director was not interested in trying to speak to the old woman, who was only over yonder. Treasure-hunting equipment Each would have been an ideal candidate to contribute to the legal and organised excavation of Klauss treasure sites. As a result, I was frequently contacted by Filipinos who believed they had located lost Japanese treasure hoards and were seeking both expertise and financial assistance in support of their proposed excavations. Robert Hunter, who died on Sept. 23 at age 78, matched words to Jerry Garcia's melodies and served as the public conscience for the Grateful Dead, whom he joined as a non-performing member in 1969. Sign Up. If they had happened, and I had known about them, I would have punished the wrongdoers severely. This time he remained hidden for a year, before being arrested after he returned to Baguio in July 1972. Or we all die. And so, while we all love a story of lost gold and would thrill to plunge a shovel into a green hillside that we suspect conceals an endless fortune, the urban legend of Yamashita's Gold is another of those most unlikely to have a happy ending. Andrew Gough. Oihara promised to purchase the golden buddha and to return in a few days with a down payment of one million pesos. What ensued was madness. With Roxass discovery, Marcoss hopes had become a reality. Most were situated on Japanese military bases, while others were located near landmarks that would be remembered in coming years, such as hospitals, schools, churches, mountains and waterfalls. The Japanese are believed to have visited Germany in the late 1930s, where they not only learned the technique of carving tunnels out of sheer earth and stone, but also how to backfill the tunnels with naturally coloured concrete known as German cement, in order to camouflage them, and to ensure that they did not look man made to novice treasure hunters. The healer, operating with nothing but his fingers 0000002456 00000 n Cheatham later testified in the Supreme Court trial. Prospective buyers took their turn examining the buddha, including Joe Oihara, a Japanese man who, on 1 April 1971, visited Roxas and shared the worrying detail that he was staying at the home of Ferdinand Marcoss mother, Josefa Edralin Marcos. She was clearly in her 90s, and yet it was a long shot, but lo and behold we hit the jackpot. We had adjoining rooms in the hotel and shared a laugh. In my mind I visualised a hole running straight through my body and out the other side. The old woman was sensational and described how she and her family had hidden in the hills as the Japanese processed by with an ox pulling a cart that contained what appeared to be a heavy box. This would prove to be a catastrophic mistake. Thank you for giving me your life. Each night, after the days dig, Klauss partner cooked dinner for the crew. I had felt the same energy when I was dowsing with Klaus. The Supreme Court ruled that Roxas had recovered a plundered Japanese buddha, and that it was solid gold, and that on multiple occasions Marcos sold large quantities of gold on the black market. Amelia also recounted how the spirit of Roxas had instructed her to wake up and look at her Facebook page, and in doing so she would discover someone who could help the Roxas family reclaim what was rightfully theirs. Klaus riding safely; shotgun in his chauffeured tricycle A Filipino man named Rogelio Roxas filed a lawsuit against Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, then exiled in Hawaii, suing them for the value of the treasure. Marcos men were elated, and they never enquired about the other one hundred and thirty-five treasure maps. I detected decades of guilt and sadness that had become imprinted on her face. They picked the fort, he said, because it was a high-security location, off-limits to all but military torturers and the unfortunate Filipino prisoners destined for death. As a result, experienced treasure hunters do not use explosives or, for that matter, motorised devices. Sign up! Absolutely not, the healer said. This was a game changer. Anderson reported that Curtis group supplied the maps, which marked an estimated $100 billion in treasure, to Marcos, who used the group to track and recover about $14 billion. Klaus had briefed me as to what the sites would be like. For the Ft. Santiago dig is just one of the many treasure hunts now being conducted in the Philippines, as the government increasingly hopes to save its moribund economy through archeology as well as increased productivity. See Photos. In 1971, Dametz claimed that (The AntiChrist) will be a political, religious, commercial autocrat of the world.. The cobra settles down in its mesh cage Andrew Gough. I wondered. Olof testified that he too had been to President Marcoss summer palace and had examined the golden buddha, and confirmed that it was the one in Cheathams photo. Roxas was assassinated. Amelia claimed to have been contacted by Ferdinand Marcos, the deceased former president of the Philippines, who thanked her for her prayers and informed her that he was in purgatory. You climb down and back up each of these sites twice a day? I asked in disbelief. Shannon Quinn is a writer and entrepreneur from the Philadelphia area. When his sister learned of his tantrum she became enraged, for she understood that the map was designed to be read with the reflection of a mirror, a detail she would have shared with her brother had she known he was actively seeking the treasure. Then, at an infamous event, where President Marcos ordered the slaughter of his opponents at a political rally and blamed the ensuing grenade attacks on the Communists, Roxas escaped once more. Imelda Marcos now claims her husbands wealth came from Yamashitas gold. He believed that what he had discovered was the tip of the iceberg; the proverbial teaser that the Japanese placed a short distance above the real prize; a treasure that most seekers would be thrilled with, believing they had found it all, when in fact the real treasures were hidden further below, deep underground. Before hiking the final mile to the site, I was introduced to the caretaker of the land. The wife and daughter of Roger Roxas The 49-year-old American treasure hunter has cordoned off this rectangular swath of Indian Ocean in the Seychelles, and now he's somewhere 25 feet below, chiseling off chunks of granite and. Our conversation prompted me to reach out to Roxass wife and daughter. We exchanged emails, became friends, and made plans to meet at his home outside Carcassonne, France. The implausibilities pile higher and higher. I was impressed and, dare I say, convinced. One day he was approached by two men representing Josefa Edralin Marcos, who offered to return a replica of the golden buddha and pay Marcos three million pesos if he publicly acknowledged that their buddha was the one that had been confiscated. The Awa Maru went to the bottom of Formosa Strait, 14 miles off the Chinese mainland with 2,007 souls and at least $500 million worth of war loot hidden aboard. Intriguingly, the alleged body of Marcos was later reburied in the Cemetery of Heroes in Metropolitan Manila in a ceremony shrouded in secrecy. Seagrave stressed that I should proceed with caution, for the story was taboo and highly dangerous. When Marcos discovered that the photo had been widely published he made the CIA pressure Cheatham into signing an affidavit certifying that the golden buddha was not gold, or else face certain death in Vietnam. So why have so many devoted so much to this tale? Despite the fact the Klaus always lights incense and states his intentions before descending, they have experienced the same sensation I have plus the even more disturbing impression that someone was tapping them on their shoulder. McDougald said the fatal accident may slow the treasure hunt. See Photos. Sen. Ernesto Maceda, one of the more skeptical critics of the hunt, asked McDougald whether he still plans to finish his book on hidden wealth. Its old but healthy, and yet it is growing parallel to the ground due to the fact that it is chemically drawn to the gold. Andrew Gough. With the Baguio treasure hoard now lost to Marcos, Roxas went into hiding for the next ten years, awaiting the day when he could fight for his treasure once more. Roxas estimated the golden buddha to have weighed one metric tonne and thus, with considerable difficulty, he transported it to his home where he placed it in a spare bedroom and covered it with a blanket. That book was followed in 2003 with Gold Warriors: America's Secret Recovery of Yamashita's Gold which told how the Americans got ahold of some or all of it, and added to a similar gold treasure taken from the Nazis, formed a secret fund called The Black Eagle Trust Fund and have been using it ever since as a black fund to fight Communism. Ballinger had photographed the Japanese ship, Huzi Maru, which was masquerading as a hospital ship, unloading boxes northwest of Manila, in Subic Bay. It came in 1988, right after Curtis and McDougald's headlines renewed the public's interest in the treasure. Robert Curtis meets Ferdinand Marcos in 1975. For the most part the program was the story of Roger Roxas, the Filipino locksmith who discovered a golden buddha and, allegedly, an enormous chamber full of gold bullion (both of which were later stolen by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos), only to have the US Supreme court demand that Roxas be awarded what amounted to the largest civil settlement in history: US$22 billion. General MacArthur returns to the Philippines, General MacArthur inspecting the looted gold. I could hear the priest explaining to others that he had, in fact, discovered a golden buddha of his own, but it was so deep and so heavy that he was unsure how to excavate it. Andrew Gough. Despite the impressive testimonials, I smelled a rat. Part of me understood why the director struggled with the filming, and ultimately did a poor job. 0000011401 00000 n There was also the odour; the smell of decomposed bodies. Bob woke up a couple hours later in the early evening and noticed that Billy was nowhere to be seen. Curtis had raised funding for his treasure hunt by claiming that Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos himself had personally invited him to recover the gold based on his unique expertise. I was not aware that Peggy had passed away the previous year, and that Sterling had only just passed in May 2017, aged 80. In subsequent days, the princes escaped to Japan by submarine, and three months later, on 2 September 1945, General Yamashita surrendered to American troops. Roxas was convinced there was treasure buried around the Baguio Hospital, but was unsure exactly where to look. Los Angeles Times. Andrew Gough, Exhausted, after returning to the surface Not surprisingly, some of Klauss workers will no longer venture to the bottom of the tunnel complex. Tunnels filled with a foot of water 0000001826 00000 n Roxas testified, returned to hiding, was discovered by Marcoss men and tortured. I knew only a little about the story, let alone the fact that Peggy and her husband Sterling were the worlds most prolific experts on the subject, and had documented the whole sordid affair in their seminal book, Gold Warriors; Americas Secret Recovery of Yamashitas Gold. However, the legal fees and the cost of the trials ate up so much cash that only $175,000 remained. Most treasure hunters go searching in the daytime and then return to local motels. Andrew Gough, A leaf of the bogtalay tree What interests might the United States have that would enable the Supreme Court decision to be ignored? President Marcos consults with Las Vegas-based psychic, Olof Jonsson. There, some say, it remains today waiting for someone possibly for you to find it and walk away. Many of these men were infected New Yorkers who had traveled to California. The book is full of errors that could easily be corrected by a second-year student of the language Another author, Donald Gillin, felt compelled to devote an entire book to debunking the Seagraves' version of history. The guerrillas attacked the Japanese with grenades, sealing many workers inside. My first Philippine adventure was nearly over, but there was one thing left to investigate: the natural healer who had brought Klauss friend to the Philippines in the first place. Since Feb. 12, with the full sanction and protection of President Corazon Aquinos government, McDougalds group has been tunneling more than 20 feet into the catacombs under Manilas oldest structure, 16th-Century Ft. Santiago. 0 Regarding the claimed gold buried in the Philippines, the fact that not a single piece has ever been found is exactly in line with our expectations. No further. The only way to recover his body was via helicopter. I had retreated to a solitary place inside my head where I was contemplating the whole astonishing quest when I heard Klaus attempting to get my attention. I could do that, I thought. One even had a cobra as its spiritual guardian that Klaus had encountered before. No-one was interested. Over the next few days Klaus took me around his sites; each was different, but equally spectacular. Torn Treasure Map 2: Top right side of the map, inside a drawer of the house called "Manito Glade". It was impossible for any man in my position to control every action of his subordinate commanders, let alone the deeds of individual soldiers. April 30, 2019 His efforts proved fruitless, however, and Fuchigami became despondent about the fact that he could not locate the tunnel system that his father had shown him as a child, even with a map. The director was also our health and safety manager for the shoot, and he opted to leave the cameraman behind and do the filming at the bottom of the tunnel complex himself. All Rights Reserved. Andrew Gough. We can gain some insight into part of this by looking into who these authors were and the cultural context in which they wrote. Before he died, Sterling Seagraves participated in Internet forums where he told increasingly unbelievable stories about many people he knew being murdered by the CIA with all sorts of exotic spy weapons "snuffed" was the term he always used. Not bad for a sixty-nine-year-old. I nodded and reflected on how pathetically difficult I found traversing the tunnel to be. Hes also a sign of Mexicos healthcare crisis, Some pharmacies in Mexico passing off fentanyl, meth as legitimate pharmaceuticals, TikTok faces bans in a number of countries over security fears. Get the day's top news with our Today's Headlines newsletter, sent every weekday morning. I was later told he had decided he did not like me before we ever met. Had he been part of the Golden Lily conspiracy? Santy, who tortured General Yamashita Tomoyukis driver, Major Kojima. Santy, as he was known, tortured Yamashitas driver, Major Kojima Kashii, until he gave up his secrets; the Japanese had buried unthinkable quantities of gold and vast hoards of ancient treasure in subterranean vaults across the Philippines. After looking for five days, they found no trace of Dametz and the case was closed. I knew we were essentially talking to the taxman about poetry. Klaus interviewed him on camera, and afterwards we took turns examining the artefacts. Obviously, this challenge made it into the press. Crawling through the inhospitable tunnel system ; One of the best ways to earn a high chunk of money in Red Dead Redemption 2 is by High Stakes Treasure maps. Amelia was a Filipino living in Los Angeles, who had gone to high school in Baguio with Roxass sister. Roxass wife was particularly keen to speak. As usual, he did not want any money for his trouble. The governor claims that there was no evidence of a massacre, so no one can assume that it happened. He quickly set out to tell his own story, one that did not follow the agreed storyline. Andrew Gough. Much to my surprise he responded straight away and said he was busy with something very important and very ancient. Many of them had pointed out that the Japanese knew they had little hope of holding the Philippines very long, and it would have been the last place they'd have sent history's biggest treasure. Reluctantly, I selected a cobra, which was promptly placed in a barrel-shaped mesh cage. Lets put it this way, McDougald said. The suspicious and rather convenient dig on the site of Roger Roxass treasure site 0000003280 00000 n The charges are completely new to me. Later that day I drove to Klauss village. 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