From: flip@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Kenneth Ilio)
Subject: Re: Last week well getting haircut..
Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston Illinois.
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 16:59:11 GMT

In article <C0o1ox.C2p@news.cso.uiuc.edu> ajpg1322@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Angelo J. Paguia) writes:
>Rikiya Asano <ra01+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:
>
>>Friends,
>
>>       Last week while getting haircut. A Fillipino gentlemen discussed
>>with me an event about the late Mr. Marcos and some treasury he found
>>that had connection with the Japanese. Please fill me in on this
>>information. Thank you!
>
>This was on the headlines back in the 70's about the "Golden Buddha".
>At the end of the war, the Japanese apparently confiscated, looted, etc.
>the Filipinos (I don't know if these was a house to house operation or
>whether it was from the Philippine treasury or what--anyway, there was
>a lot of jewelry and gold involved) to help them finance more war efforts
>or something. They could not or did not transport it back to Japan and
>so they hid it in the mountains, the location of which was unknown for
>a long time. The news was that someone had located the loot, but Marcos
>immediately clamped down on all the info about it, wiping it off the
>newspapers, all the while merrily helping himself to it. The gold was
>apparently melted into the form of a Golden Buddha and the jewels stored
>inside it.

It is not as simple as this.  The so called Yamashita gold just
did not include the loot the Japanese amassed from the Philippines
but from the many parts of mainland Asia.  (I doubt that Japanese
really got THAT much amount from the Philippines, most of the
riches were supposed to have come from Burma, China and other
places.)  The loot was supposed to have been hidden in caves and
/or extensive underground tunnel systems in Luzon built by the
Japanese using Filipino labor while the Japanese were retreating.
These caves/tunnel systems were supposed to have been built in
Luzon ... and the people who built them were supposed to have
been buried in the caves together with the treasures so no one would
be able to pinpoint the exact locations of these tunnels.  

Since Marcos was doing some illegal activities during the war
(i.e. he wasn't supposed to be a war hero but a trader instead ...
he was trading junk with the Japanese), he was supposed to have
known the location of some (or all) of these tunnels and the
treasures that are contained in it.
>
>When Marcos was fleeing the Philippines, there was talk of all the 
>jewelry and stuff that was being carted onto the US planes. Some of these
>were rumored to be the Golden Buddha and other jewelry that went with it.

As the Madame herself said, the Swiss money was not from the Philippine treasury
but from treasures Marcos found during the war.  Supposedly, they buried
parts of the treasure in Malacanang grounds itself!!!  

What is troubling about this piece of information (i.e. that the money
came from Yamashita gold) is that if this is true, then Burma, China
and all other countries from which the treasures were taken would
have equal claim to it too.  
>
>In all fairness, I do not know the verity of any of these rumors as
>there was a lot of gossip on anything and everything during the martial
>law days as that was the only form of passing on news. Everyone knew
>that the newspapers carried either desensitized/censored news or even
>fabricated ones. We Filipinos really went through a lot with Marcos.

For more information about the Marcos treasure, read Haregreaves
THE MARCOS DYNASTY ... the Yamashita gold theory re: Marcos's ill-
gotten wealth is very well espoused in this book.
>
>Angelo


Ken Ilio