PHILIPPINE TREASURE HUNTERS ORGANIZATION Initiatives for Economic Development

Gold Treasures in the Philippines: Tell Tale Stories?

Gold for gold. Find the gold. Share the gold. Philippines is “Riches Country in the World!” There are 950,000 metric tons of gold ( declared missing in the International Court of Justice in Hague) picked up by Yamashita from its European Ally, Hitler and another 250,000 metric tons of the Japanese loot around Southeast Asia are both now in the Philippines. Very few Filipinos knows this.. ( Wall Street Journal, November 15,1985 issue wrote: “ Two Thirds of all the gold in the world is in Philippines and One third is divided among the rest of the countries of the world”) ; During A TALK SHOW in a U.S. TV , the week following the bombing of the New York Twin Towers, President George Bush was asked this question: Which is the riches country in the world today? With a smile he said; “The Philippines.” In a US TV interview as well with President barrack Obama, in his “700 Billion USD stimulus funds” for US economy, he was asked a question where will he get the billion dollar substantial funds needed and quoted saying.. “ We have friends outside US who will support us”.

The branded Yamashita Treasure was considered “booty”. There were varied country claimants who are victims of the said WWII loots and these countries filed protest and claims after the war in the International Court of Justice. Though, there was a passage of law for thirty years starting 1946, that without a valid claim against it this “booty” it would belong to its new possessor. That would have been in 1976. However, the International Criminal Court (ICC) extended the deadline of the claims to 10 years up to 1986. With the conspiracy of the International Banking Cartel, neither the ICJ denied the existence of these gold and claims. Sadly, Successive governments of the Philippines denied its existence and failed to acknowledgd the gold. For almost 24 years, Information has been conspired to keep from being known to Filipino people.

This country is approximately a holder of estimated 1.2 Million Metric Tons of buried Gold excluding gold bullions way back to history of the “Maharlika” time. Only some of the Yamashita and Prince Chichibu buried gold in the Philippines has been found and the bulk of it is still around all over the archipelago to this day. Up to now, thousands of local individuals, company and foreign groups ventured secretly digging for it, including Japanese Treasure Hunters.

These gold loots are kept, transported, hoarded , concealed and burried in said to be 175 “imperial” vaults constructed in a maze of underground tunnels in the Philippines under the command and implementation of General Chichibu . The looting started in December 1937 in China’s Chinese Capitol of Nanking up to the advent and action of WWII .

Prince Chichibu is the younger brother of Emperor Hirohito and had been selected to head the ultra secret treasure recovery team. The Prime Minister, Prince Asaka had come from the Emperor with instructions to fully implement the plan. This led to the Rape of Nanking and the death of 300,000 Chinese civilians and military. Many had been tortured to reveal the locations of treasures and summarily executed. This secret team was given a code name of the Golden Lily after a poem the Emperor had once written. 6000 metric tons of gold were recovered from Nanking alone plus silver and precious stones.

Prince Chichibu

Top military and government officials meet in Mukden, Manchukuo in late 1936 to discuss the forthcoming war with the Chinese, Americans, Netherlands and French. The Emperor of Japan and others had developed a plan to finance the expansion of their military and to construct the ships, planes and other military hardware that would be required in order to implement their plans.

In December 1937 Japan had openly declared war on China and had surrounded the Chinese Capitol of Nanking. Prince Chichibu, the younger

brother of Emperor Hirohito had been selected to head the ultra secret

treasure recovery team code name: Golden Lily.

In July 1940, Winston Churchill, the wartime Prime Minister of Great Britain, met with Lord Beaverbrook. France had just fallen to Hitler's blitzkreig. The Germans had amassed their troops in the ports of France ready to cross the English Channel and invade Britain. Churchill had learned that the French had transferred their national treasures to French Indochina just before they had signed an armistice with the Germans. He had also learned from the Queen of The Netherlands that they had moved their treasures to the Dutch East Indies. He and the King of England decided to move the British treasures to the supposedly safe island fortress of Singapore off the southern tip of the Malay peninsula.

In 1941, Japan had sunk most of the American Pacific fleet with a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. On December 1941 Christmas Day , Japan had taken most of the major port cities of China and had forced the British into surrendering Hong Kong. By early January 1942 Japan's victories had been nothing short of miraculous. Guam and Wake lands had fallen. Japan had assimilated Thailand and the northern part of French Indochina. The Japanese had launched a vigorous invasion of the Philippine Islands and were pushing the Americans into a final defensive position on Bataan. Her armies were fighting their way down the Malay Peninsula approaching Singapore. Although the Japanese were encountering little resistance they were greatly outnumbered by the British and Indian troops. The Golden Lily team had been greatly expanded to handle these rapidly changing situations. It is fair to say that they were actually overwhelmed.

Emperor Hirohito had requested Prince Chichibu to fly to Hanoi in French Indochina to meet with his younger brother Prince Mikasa.

The Japanese secret police had learned that France had sent their National Treasures there.

But, where were they hidden? Prince Chichibu had ordered the torture of the Bankers and former Diplomats in order to find out. They learned the treasure had been sent to Saigon by rail just before the Japanese troops had moved into Hanoi. The treasure had been hidden in the ruins of an ancient temple at the end of track. The excitement of this recovery was only overshadowed by later events.

The fortress of Singapore fell to General Yamashita and with General MacArthur being ordered out of the Philippines, the last American and Filipino troops on Bataan and Corregidor surrendered to General Homma. The infamous Death March began. The Japanese victories on all fronts were extremely heady. They began to believe in their own invincibility. Burma was now in Japanese hands and invasion plans had been drawn up for a move into Northern Australia. Asia and Southeast Asia and most of the Islands in the Pacific were as good as theirs.

Prince Chichibu in Singapore was elated when his team found the treasures of Britain stored in the banks. The collection of wealth throughout the conquered lands continued. With over 5000 years of Asia's antiquity to pillage, the amounts collected were astronomical. Far surpassing what was thought to be the total amount of gold ever mined throughout history. With Shanghai in their hands the Golden Lily team found themselves stretched to the limit in keeping up with the collection and melting down of the precious metals. Another surprise experienced by Prince Chichibu was the discovery that the Dutch had moved their treasures to Batavia in the Netherlands East Indies. Now, not only did Japan have the wealth of the Asian continent, but they were rewarded with much of the European treasures as well. Hitler's loss was Japan's gain.

Japan's luck had begun to run out by May 1942. Their first setback was the Battle of the Coral Sea where the Allies had forced Japan to turn back her invasion fleet which they had planned to land in New Guinea. The following month they suffered a further major setback with the Battle of Midway where Japan lost four of her front line fleet carriers and the cream of her trained aviators. These were the same ships and pilots that had attacked Pearl Harbor five months earlier. In August 1942 the Americans landed an invasion force on Guadalcanal. Japan tried for months to dislodge the stubborn American Marines but eventually had to concede this unknown but important island base. After that Japan could never again launch another major offensive anywhere. The war would continue for another three years while the Japanese slowly lost the lands that they had conquered. Japan's dream was over and their nightmare had begun.

By mid-1942 American submarines and aircraft had begun to take a serious toll on Japanese shipping. Prince Chichibu could no longer send the many tons of treasure back to Japan with any guarantee that it would get there and not end up on the bottom of the ocean floor. Actually he had to revise his thinking about where to send the treasures after the Midway fiasco. Following a meeting with his brother, the Emperor, it was decided that the treasures should be hidden in the Philippine Islands. Why the Philippines? Because Japan was certain that they would end up with these islands during surrender negotiations with the Allies. Also, it was the shortest distance from Hong Kong and Singapore where the material was being processed.

Prince Chichibu had begun shipping material to the Philippines even before this decision was made. It was originally intended to be sent on to Japan in returning war ships. The Prince was still nervous about these shipments even after the decision was made. He commandeered four large freighters and had them painted all white with a red cross on their sides. These were "hospital" ships which he loaded with the many treasures. To be absolutely sure that even these ships were not molested he announced their movement on a clear radio channel so that the Americans would know their times of departure and their courses. (Robert Curtis)

PRINCE CHICHIBU IN THE PHILIPPINES

Prince Chichibu had moved his Headquarters to Manila in the Philippines. He had entrusted his younger brother Prince Mikasa and his cousin Prince Asaka to continue the collection of the treasures. Before he left he had begun to cut up the many golden pagodas and Buddhas which were being melted down and poured into 75 kilo bars. This amassing of the treasures would continue until Japan ultimately surrendered.

Prince Chichibu was now faced with new challenges. Where and how to hide the treasures so that they could not be accidentally discovered after the war. The Prince was not as certain as his brother, the Emperor, that Japan would end up with the Philippine Islands following their defeat. He decided that these treasures would have to be hidden in deep, well engineered tunnel systems. He had no experience in mining and basically that was what was going to be required.

Major Nakasone was the only member of the Golden Lily team who had any mining background. He had studied mining engineering but never had any on the job training. He sent for him anyway. In the meantime he asked The Emperor for help and he responded by having someone locate twenty experience men in underground excavation in Japan who were quickly sent to the Philippines. If the Prince needed more workers, he would have to get them from the Filipinos. In addition the Emperor had reminded Chichibu that the POWs of the Americans and the British contained a lot of engineering experts especially those who served in the construction battalions.

Manpower was the least of his problems. There were thousands of POWs who the Japanese considered expendable. If that wasn't enough then there were millions of Filipino males that could be used. As soon as here received his experts he immediately began work in a dozen locations. While this was going on the treasure ships were arriving weekly and their precious cargo had been added to the other treasure already stored in heavily guarded warehouses. There were other problems; the movement of the cargo from the ships to the warehouses attracted a lot of attention. Chichibu decided to construct an underground tunnel system from the piers to the warehouses which were in the capture American base named Fort McKinley. Eventually this tunnel would branch out under Manila and run for 35 miles. The entrance was in Intramuros, the ancient walled city of the Spaniards, which was near the docks. It terminated at MacArthur's headquarters in Fort McKinley.

Prince Chichibu had to make some other major decisions. Why not hide all the treasure in one large location? The Emperor had answered that question. Security!!! Too many people who had worked on the location would know where it was, also if someone should accidentally find the location all would be lost. Early on the Prince had made the decision that except for a few foreign engineers the entire work force would have to be exterminated. The next question was where could this work be done where the local population would not be aware of what was going on there. Japanese military bases were perfect. Only the military had access to them and most bases had POW camps nearby. Prince Chichibu visualized that when the Americans returned to recapture the Philippines that there would be massive bombings. The map makers needed permanent landmarks in order to relocate these sites after the war. The Americans had shown in Europe that they would avoid bombing historical buildings. The four hundred year old historical Spanish Churches and fortifications were perfect. But just to make sure he would house American POWs in them. Mainly women and children. He would then arrange for clear radio communications to announce this fact. It worked, the Americans spared these sites.

Major Nakasone was at Fort Santiago, a 16th century Spanish fortification, collecting slave labors from the Kempeitai Headquarter's dungeons and torture chambers. One of the physically strong Filipino's he selected was Leopoldo Giga. Nakasone knew a Colonel Kantaro Giga who was one of his instructors at the military academy. Out of curiosity he decided to personally interview Giga. He found him an intelligent, 28 year old, who spoke fluent Japanese. He also learned he was a nephew of his academy instructor. Giga's father was the brother of the instructor who was a minor diplomat who had been attached to the Japanese Embassy in the Philippines 1913. Giga's mother had met the Diplomat and had become his common-law wife. Another advantage that Nakasone found in Giga was that he spoke two of the main dialects of the Filipino people. Instead of making him a slave laborer he assigned him to his staff. Giga came to the attention of Prince Chichibu who had him commissioned as a sub-lieutenant in the Imperial Army. He was sent to Japan to attend schooling on tunneling and inventorying the treasure. He returned a Captain and worked on most of the treasure sites.

Prince Chichibu was in Nueva Vizcaya in early 1942. He was examining a major excavation outside of the town of Bambang. He and his staff had a young Filipino boy who had come down with a fever and had died. He had been a houseboy who did the laundry of the Prince and his staff as well as kept their boots and other equipment cleaned and polished. He sent his aide out to locate a replacement. The Aide came back with a 14 year old uneducated farm boy whose name was Benjamin Valmores. During the next three and a half years Valmores traveled with the Prince to many of the sites all over the Philippines. He learned Japanese and a smattering of English. He was never allowed to go down into the tunnels, but he watched them being constructed and filled with the treasures. He and Giga would survive the war.

As the war reached its inevitable climax in early 1945 the Japanese were receiving more treasure than they could prepare sites for in which to hide it. Their warships became useless due to the American air- superiority, so they loaded them with these newly arrived treasures and pretended they were being sent back to Japan. Instead the Japanese deliberately sank or scuttled these ships and machine-gunned their own men so that the ships would go down in predetermined locations and no witnesses would be alive to tell the tale. There were thirteen of these planned sinkings. Some of these went down in Manila Bay; others were sunk in not to deep Philippine Waters throughout the archipelago.

The bloody war was over. The hopes of Emperor Hirohito and others to force the Americans to agree to a treaty that would allow Japan to keep some of the lands they had taken by conquest had been shattered. They had planned the final battle that they were certain would cause the Americans over a million casualties when they invaded the Japanese home islands. The two atomic bombs and Russia's invasion of Manchuria in an attempt to annex some of Japan's conquered lands had cause the Emperor to agree to an unconditional surrender. Now the conquerors wanted to bring to justice those who were responsible for the many atrocities. Over 4000 war criminals were charged. Of these 2400 received a prison sentence of three years or more and 809 were ultimately hung. (Robert Curtis)

THE BRANDING OF “YAMASHITA GOLD”

The famous Yamashita Gold treasure trove takes its name from General Tomoyuki Yamashita, who assumed command of Japanese forces in the Philippines only in 1944, a year before the war ends. But, the irony of it, the whole treasure troves was not all buried by Yamashita as many believe. There are team of Japanese Officers and Generals assigned who lead the 14^th Army in the Philippines ahead of him since the Japanese invasions and occupations in 1941 .

These generals were Lt. General Masaharu Homma ; Vice Admiral Ibo Takahashi; Vice Admiral Nishizo Tsukahara; Lt. General Shizuiki Tanaka; Lt. General Shigenori Kuroda and some of their Chief of Staffs Major Gen. Takaji Wachi; Lt General Haruki Isayama; Lt. Gen. Tsuchino Yamaguchi; Lt Gen. Ryuzo Sakuma and Lt. Gen. Akira Muto were burying already the bulk of gold loots carried over by the command and implementation of Prince Chichibu or General Chichibu way back starting 1942 up to early 1945. Only why it was branded as “Yamashita Gold” due to first news informed treasure recoveries in the late 70’s particularly of “Roxas – His Golden Budda” and the gold recoveries of “Sta Romana” in Northern Luzon buried by Yamashita who also was in charge then for the quick burying concealment because Japan is already loosing the war . He was as well known as “Tiger of Malaya” and strongly identified as the general tasked to transport the bulk of gold loots from Singapore to Philippines by Japanese Navy Fleets carrying himself to his new command post in the Philippines in September 1944 as 14^th Area Army Commander. And the fact that, Yamashita was the last General on command of the Japanese forces in the Philippines during the unconditional surrender of Japan in 1945. The "gold" includes many different kinds of valuables looted from banks, depositories, mosques, temples, churches, shops, museums and private homes. It was intended that loot from South East Asia would finance Japan's war effort. Most of the loot was first shipped to the port of Singapore, where it was then relayed to the Philippines. From the Philippines, it was intended that the treasure would be shipped to the Japanese home islands which did not materialized.

When the gold was buried, it was done in anticipation that the Americans would defeat the Japanese and the underground vaults, tunnels, and entrances were booby trapped with gas, explosives, and water. The water traps were created by digging 300 - 350 feet underground in the dry months, at which time the water table was at its lowest.

As the Pacific War progressed, Allied submarines and aircraft took a heavy toll on Japan's shipping. Some ships carrying gold loots back to Japan were sunk. The Japanese military began to hide the loot in caves and underground complexes throughout the Philippines, hoping to recover it after the war was over. Many of those who knew the locations of the loot were either executed or incarcerated for war crimes, including Yamashita. Thus, the whereabouts of the treasure locations were lost. Many years later, Former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos located some of the treasure and obtained part of his personal fortune from it. His recoveries are known as the "Marcos Gold”or “Marcos Wealth". Aside from these finds, others finds are not sufficiently documented.

HITLER’S NAZI LOOT OF EUROPE, THE VATICAN AND ANTONIO DIAZ STA ROMANA CONTROVERSY:

In the early 1930’s , Europe was in depression and Germany was financially bankrupt, An unknown party leader emerged and promise the German people that he could create jobs and boost the economy. The Germans dared him and put him in power. His name is Adolf Hitler. In 1933, the Vatican and Hitler, a Roman Catholic signed a concordat and mutual protection and enhancement. That was apparently that Vatican was spared of the ruins of war in Europe during WWII. “Hitler was loaded with gold and money”. He built a massive army and manufactured weapons of war. Then Hitler took Poland. Before 1918 there was no Poland. That land was part of Germany and used as a buffer zone to separate Germany from Russia. But when Hitler reclaimed it, England declared war on Germany.

By the advent of the WWII, Germany and Japan made strong allies and positioned their army forces and manufactured weapons not only for war or expanding their empire but conquest for wealth and connived for the European and Asian Looting.

After the War, accordingly “Fr. Jose Antonio Diaz,”aka Fr Hayes; Severino Garcia Sta Romana, et al and other used names formerly of the OSS and CIA was entrusted by the Vatican to take charge of Vatican gold buried on the Philippines. The claims of the “Vatican gold” was identified as bullion that had been “captured by Hitler” and that had belonged to the royal families of Europe and been placed under the trusteeship of the Vatican. It also includes gold bullions that was plundered by the Japanese under General Chichibu and buried in the Philippines.

Fr. Diaz had “assumed several names when he moved to the Philippines.” One of these was “Col. Severino Sta. Romana.” Being with the OSS after the war, he was able to retrieved, unlock on only some of the buried gold bullion treasures in Northern Part of Luzon, Philippine Island. By peacetime, he was also the major catalyst for the safe return of 640,000 metric tons of Gold owned by the royalty family of the former “maharlika” or the Philipines borrowed by the Vatican in 1939 and facilitated its return to the original owners in Philippines and rewarded with paid commissions of 30% of the returned gold. The value of the gold now estimated at $4 trillion in which anyone could raise eyebrows its existence. Where it is now? It was noted that Sta. Romana during that time had “hired the young Marcos as his lawyer and trustee.” By 1949, It was said the Two (2) richest man in the world were Fr. Jose Antonio Diaz and Atty. Ferdinand E Marcos . Perhaps, there is a good reason to believe now for people who defended and stay on hold to the programs of the former “strong man” that his wealth is “Not Ill-Gotten”.

In 1974, Fr, Jose Antonio Diaz, alias Severino Sta. Romana died and all that 30% commission in gold become the legendary “MARCOS GOLD”. In power, after providing for his family in Marcos “Letter of Instruction”, the whole wealth derived from this was supposed to be given to the FILIPINO PEOPLE. However, the “MARCOS GOLD or MARCOS WEALTH” was labeled as “Ill-Gotten” as some of Philippine Politicians and Churchmen kept on saying. There was nothing secret about the said.. “Marcos Secret Account”. History of and by the said “Letter of Instructions”, will show that the money was not stashed away and inaccessible but available to truly deserving Filipinos. Filipinos should know this. The grand scheme of these with these International banking cartels with the backdrop control of Superpower Nations with so much interest no less than by greed so that this country and its people will remain a slave and shackled to these foreign powers. They don’t want our country to be made a “ First World Country”. The phony scheme of the CIA backed EDSA “PEOPLE POWER REVOLUTION” exhibition in 1986 continually blinded FILIPINOS up to now and keep repeating that MARCOS was a thief so that those hundreds of billions of “ MARCOS WEALTH” will remain froze and not given to the Filipino people.

WHO SHOULD OWN THE GOLD TREASURES IN THE PHILIPPINES?

Apparently, after 1986 under the International Court of Justice, the gold treasure buried in the Philippines or in other nations will be owned by the possessor of it. Who are they? For Filipinos, Its us Filipinos who have the control of private or government land allegedly to contain of these buried gold loots. However, in reality, we have to accept the fact that it was not ours since time in memorial these gold were owned by varied international country claimants. But who to prove it that its theirs? Even the International Court of Justice up to now denied its existence for reason how will they prove it? To “someone” who had accumulated the German and Japanese plundered gold gathered in by General Chichibu and General Yamashita obviously preferred not to come forward with their claims because such claims would possibly reveal the source of such wealth. To take note the Japan’s ravage of the war in Burma and Asian neighbors where their historical and ancient gold was looted , was cut , stripped, melted and formed into another gold bars. The war was over and it would be difficult to identify the actual ownership of these gold if found. However, gold hallmarks can do so, and the hallmarks still carry international warrants for claims. The come and go to the Philippines of mandates and representatives by the international gold bullion buyers from Europe, China, America etc. are taking advantage of huge buying % discounts from who would be finders and holders/sellers of the gold loots. To note, before transporting these items , a must buying policy that these hallmarks of gold identity would be first erased or removed and re-melted again into new dory or plain bars form before shipment and payments. Other buying schemes would have it shipped out after making any financial payment guarantees to the sellers and after re-melting and refining, payments can be done off-shore. Thus , legalizing and documenting said gold treasures would be easy for them.

TO BE CONTINUED…………………………

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