The audacious treasure hunter would not stand a chance against the might of Ferdinand Marcos, he thought. I thought. Thirty years after the disappearance, David Paulides, a former police officer and researcher on missing people, filmed the video above and brought the case to the attention of the Colorado government. Read about more bizarre, untimely deaths on 10 Creepily Ironic Historical Deaths and 10 Unusual Ways to Die Through the Ages. Crawling through the inhospitable tunnel system Quite popular, this particular treasure. The State of Colorado agreed to reopen the investigation into Dametzs disappearance.[3]. The Japanese strategy was two-fold: strip the East of their cultural identity, while returning priceless treasures back to Japan to fund their military, political and economic world dominance for the next thousand years. There are five Americans from the company working at the Ft. Santiago site, McDougald said, along with about 30 Filipino laborers who are digging the 3-foot-by-7-foot tunnel through the forts long-buried catacombs. I followed Klaus down the third descending vertical shaft only to find myself standing in nearly a foot of water. I was further astounded by the conversation that continued off camera. Few would persevere and dig that deep, especially after finding so many valuables at the intermediate level. Juan Quijon: a Filipino army cook who later testified that in 1972 he had been assigned to a newly formed unit called Task Force Restoration, which was created by Marcos to recover treasure, mostly gold, from Japanese treasure sites. I watched the show and their drive-by shooting approach to treasure hunting with dread. The award was later substantially reduced and nothing was ever collected. 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. Andrew Gough. Things became even worse. 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. Hours later I arrived and was greeted by the caretaker. 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. Theyre sand traps. Aquinos executive secretary, Catalino Macaraig, said last month that the government has granted more than 80 permits to foreign and local treasure seekers in the two years since Aquino took power, and that applications continue to arrive at the presidents office at the rate of one a day. In hindsight, Roxas had been aware of the implications of this clandestine relationship, but had had no choice in the matter. Nor, to be honest, did I. Jim Hawkins, the protagonist of Robert Louis Stevenson 's 1881 novel, Treasure Island. This time I was prepared. He quickly set out to tell his own story, one that did not follow the agreed storyline. What? What if the so-called carer had been planted by a covert government agency? Typically, they had left a marker, such as a small buddha, around ten to fifteen feet underground. His bizarre and frightening experience lasted mere seconds. In all, Prince Chichibu is said to have managed the construction of one hundred and seventy-five treasure sites, all across the Philippines. Look at this tree, he abruptly proclaimed, stopping us dead in our tracks. He stared back defiantly. Klaus had nailed it. Unlike most treasure hunters, Roxas followed the official protocol, but was unlucky in that his permit was granted by Judge Pio Marcos, the uncle of President Ferdinand Marcos. One year later, after an extensive search-and-rescue effort, all three bodies were finally recovered. When the healer arrived back home a luxurious Toyota 44 that had been purchased for him was waiting in the driveway. Los Angeles Times Communications LLC, 6 Mar. Their attack on the East was brutal, and largely airbrushed from history. <]>> Andrew Gough. No matter where I go treasure hunting and metal detecting I have lot's of fun so thanks for subscribing and I hope you enjoy watching my treasure hunting adventures - I look forward to your . The plane landed with a thud at Heathrow airport, and normality soon ensued. One sudden stop or turn and my head would be severed. When the cave-in become public Feb. 29, McDougald and his group were forced to go public as well. Hours later, on the plane back to London, my brain was in overdrive. Roger Roxas was a former Filipino soldier turned locksmith, and president of the Treasure Hunters Association of the Philippines, who lived in Baguio, a mountainous resort town about 130 miles north of Manila. In another (unrelated) incident, Ballingers unit had made their way to Baguio and witnessed the Japanese loading heavy boxes into a tunnel system near the hospital. For weeks, nearly a dozen members of Aquinos elite presidential security guard cordoned off the entire fort to keep the treasure hunt a secret and to ensure that the government receives its rightful 75% cut of anything McDougalds group finds. Greed is one of the seven deadly sins, but the thought of stumbling upon buried treasure is seductive to everyone. There are far more people attempting to find treasure than there are success stories. Poster of the fake golden buddha (from the Roxas Museum in Baguio) We had adjoining rooms in the hotel and shared a laugh. I tried not to think about it as I descended the first sixty-foot shaft with a bamboo ladder that afforded my already wet and slippery wellies only about three inches of grip before my toes became jammed against the edge of the tunnel. 1988. Could these mysterious deaths have been murder, or as some believe, could something supernatural have been afoot? Frustratingly, he was unable to recapture what she had so convincingly and spontaneously said previously, leading the director to believe we had made it all up. Imelda Marcoss mother had been a big fan of the healer. Families of the victims pleaded with the governor of the local area to do something. Estimates of the total buried treasure start at $100 billion and soar to a high of $2 trillion in gold bullion, a figure cited by a respected Manila columnist, Hilarion Henares. Fred C. Dobbs, the protagonist of B. Traven 's 1927 novel, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and the movie of the same name. At a hearing Friday by the Philippine Senate into the treasure hunt, McDougald said that his group is using a sophisticated detection device that pinpoints the depth and density of buried metals. The sudden, tragic death of Roxas overshadowed the trial, but did not negatively impact the outcome. trailer 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. The implausibilities pile higher and higher. I sensed wetness and as I propped myself up and looked down at where he was working all I could see was blood. %%EOF %PDF-1.4 % 2019. 0000002983 00000 n Andrew Gough. Andrew Gough. If you like this programming, please become a member. Klaus demonstrating the art of dowsing After about two hours of digging, McSherry walked over to Dametz to let him know that it was time to drive home. Billy and Bob were prepared to camp for several days near the Norris ranch while they looked for gold. Phil never returned from his trip, so the police were called. They were retaken by the Allied forces over the course of a brutal year culminating with the Japanese surrender in September 1945. The new, freelance director who had been hired to replace him had read my LinkedIn profile and decided that my business background meant I was not someone he wanted to feature. In 1971, Dametz claimed that (The AntiChrist) will be a political, religious, commercial autocrat of the world.. Others shared how he had ever so slightly removed their eyeballs, cleaned them, and put them back, fully restoring their vision in the process. Hunter died Monday at his Northern California home with his wife . He had opened me up with only his hands, and now his fingers were inside me. I was enthralled with Cathcart (then retired and in his eighties and suffering from Parkinsons disease), and surprised by what a stoic figure he was, despite his frailties. 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. Each night, after the days dig, Klauss partner cooked dinner for the crew. Within hours Roxas was dead. The liberal opposition party rallied around Roxas, as they saw an opportunity to gain ground on Marcos, and encouraged him to testify in the Philippine Senate. We said goodbye to Henry and headed out for lunch. This entire field was part of the Japanese military base, you see., The low-growing tree that points towards the gold 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. Then McSherry returned to his own pit to clean up the tools and collect the stones. Years after his disappearance, he was assumed to be dead. Later that day I drove to Klauss village. Enjoy it as fiction in the many such works where it figures into fanciful plot lines but don't confuse this particular fiction with reality. McDougald, who has lived here for more than a decade and secured his doctorate in business from the University of the Philippines in 1983, is not the moving force behind the dig. My neck was pressed against the sharp edge of the rusted metal tricycle roof. Lets put it this way, McDougald said. I wanted to leave, but the caretaker said I mustnt; the healer had sent me, and I needed to complete his process. International Precious Metals has a year-long permit to hunt for treasure, estimated to be as much as $200 billion in gold that the Japanese looted from the country. This, according to the urban legend, is the time frame over which the Japanese military, using Filipinos as slave laborers, transported their gold up into the mountains and sealed it all into vast tunnel systems. The bogtalay tree is regarded as sacred in the East. After a long but successful walk I arrived at Klauss most remote treasure site. The Japanese constructed their subterranean treasure networks with the aid of a thousand young men, mostly prisoners of war who worked three eight-hour shifts a day to create a complex series of tunnels and chambers deep underground. After working on my prostate, the healer opened up my liver, heart and spine in the same manner with only his hands. Whats more, during 1974 and 1975 he excavated the tunnel behind the hospital in Baguio and personally witnessed gold bars falling from wooden crates as they were removed from the site. What is that, I asked. In his extensive research on the subject, Seagrave recounted how in one horrific incident in June 1945, as US tanks approached from twenty miles away, the one hundred and seventy-five chief engineers who were responsible for each of the sites were given a farewell party two hundred and twenty feet underground, in a complex known as Tunnel 8. Johnson, C. "The Looting of Asia." Nope, we had to move on; places to be. With Henry Roxas, Rogers treasure-hunting son Without an engineering map you would never be able to find your way through the twists and turns without activating them. It was January 2016, and my interest in the story had waned once more. 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