Opinion ID: 1405642
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Military excavations

Text: Roxas was released from prison on November 19, 1974. When he arrived home the next day, he noticed soldiers standing outside tents near the Baguio General Hospital. Sometime in December 1974, some soldiers visited Roxas in his shop and told him that they were members of the Task Force Restoration, which was conducting excavations behind the hospital. They listed their address in Roxas's logbook (which was never produced at trial) as Malacanag Palace. The soldiers asked him to come with them to help with the excavation; he refused. Roxas passed by the site in 1976 and saw that the excavations were still ongoing. In October 1976, Roxas and his family moved to Visayan City, where they stayed for the next ten years without further incident relating to the Yamashita treasure. Juan Quijon (Juan) and his son, Romulo Quijon (Romulo), corroborated Roxas's testimony regarding the excavations. Juan had worked as a nursing attendant at Baguio General Hospital from 1945 to 1988. He noticed a number of soldiers involved in excavation behind the hospital between 1974 and 1975. Over a one-week period, Juan observed men carrying large wooden boxes out of a tunnel and placing them in trucks. Each box was carried by at least fourand sometimes sixmen. The soldiers' uniforms bore the initials PSC, and the trucks had the letters PMA painted on them. Juan also observed men removing some steel boxes with the aid of a winch. The soldiers left in August 1975. Romulo testified that he worked as a cook for the soldiers performing excavations behind the hospital in 1974. Romulo testified that the PSC on the soldiers' uniforms stood for Presidential Security Command, and the PMA painted on the trucks stood for Philippine Military Academy. The soldiers employed civilians to perform most of the digging. Romulo saw these civilians pushing and pulling boxes out of a hole and loading them into trucks. The boxes appeared to be old and in poor condition. Some fell apart while being carried, and gold-colored bars fell out onto the ground. Romulo observed approximately ten boxes per day being loaded into trucks over a period of one year. He testified that the soldiers were very strict about keeping the public out of the area and that armed guards were posted at the trucks during the loading.