This is a special seed of The Gardener’s Tales
NOTES IN FORM OF A SELECT CHRONOLOGY AS HELP IN ESTIMATING THE MARCOS WEALTH AND WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT IT IN THESE TIMES OF UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY
February 1942
Treasure talk in the Philippines dates back to World War II.
Most countries tried to hide their wealth when they realized that the enemy was about to attack. Spain shipped all of its gold reserves to Russia for safekeeping (guess who never saw their gold again?).
In the Philippines, while the Americans and Filipinos were holding off the Japanese at Bataan, President Quezon had twenty tons of the treasury’s gold bullion and silver pesos loaded on the submarine US Strout and taken to Australia. Another 350 tons of silver pesos, worth more than Php15 million (almost $8 million at that time long ago), was dumped in the waters off southern Corregidor in May 1942 and several million dollars in paper currency were burned after the serial numbers were noted and radioed to Washington.
August 1942
During the middle part of 1942, the tide of battle began to turn. Japan was losing. Any planned movement of treasure back to Japan had to change – if only as a temporary measure. When the Japanese Imperial Army rolled victorious through Asia, it systematically pillaged each country, shipping raw materials to Japan to further the war effort.
What is little known is that the Japanese did not stop with raw materials. The plunder of each country they occupied was absolute – total. All banks, treasuries, and other depositories of wealth were looted. Even the bodies of the enemy dead were violated. Gold teeth were ripped out, fingers with rings cut off, museums, temples, churches were not spared, along with the temples of vice – gambling, prostitution, smuggling, opium, money lending.
AUGUST 1942
A group of Japanese officers, assisted by a special engineer brigade, began burying treasure. They took months of excavation to build elaborate tunnel systems and complexes large enough to hold trucks and sometimes deep enough to be below the water table.
The Japanese built the first underwater tunnel from Kyushu, furthest south of the four major islands, to Honshu, the largest island, in 1942. They had the technology – no doubt about it.
Ferdinand E. Marcos believed in the treasure. After he became president, a large number of military personnel were assigned full time to treasure-hunt under the secret leadership of his most trusted Fabian Ver.
Progress reports to Marcos about various treasure site excavations were found in the palace after the Edsa insurrection. Aside from Ver, the team included Col. Mario Lachica, Gen. Santiago Barangan, Gen. Onofre Ramos, Col. Florentino Villacrucis, Col. Porfirio Gemoto, Gen. Ramon Cannu, Gen. Tomas Dumpit, Col. Orlando Dulay, Maj. Patricio Dumlao, Johnny Wilson and Venancio Duque.
One day Marcos explained to Enrique Zobel de Ayala (http://www.nenepimentel.org/bluerib/zobel-depo.htm ) that he reminted gold bars in Hong Kong in 1946 and accumulated more through various treasure hunts but kept everything secret. The reason? Other countries might have legal claims until 1985 because of the statute of limitations.
1967
While Marcos was sometimes quick to talk about his wealth as the result of treasure hunting, he was understandably loathe to talk about commissions, payoffs, and confiscations. In the year 1967 after he committed troops to Vietnam, he began receiving quarterly checks of US$200,000.00 each, delivered by the US Embassy, as per a secret agreement “between officials of Department of State and President Marcos that the Philippine Government could conceal the receipt of these payments from the Philippine public in its national defense budget.”
July 07, 1967
Papers found in Malacañang showed Marcos opened his first bank account abroad on this day when he deposited US$215,000.00 in Chase Manhattan Bank in New York.
Not yet accustomed to hiding money, he used his own name. The following year, 1968, he opened his first Swiss account.
March 1968
Walter Fessler, an official of Credit Suisse Bank in Zurich, came to Manila. He was brought to Malacanang. Forms were filled out and signatures appended. On his signature verification form, Marcos wrote out “William Saunders (pseudonym),” an alias he had used in his WWII days, and underneath that name he wrote “Ferdinand Marcos (real name).” Imelda did the same, choosing Jane Ryan as her pseudonym. Four bank accounts were opened. Four checks, totaling US$950,000.00 were given for the deposit. -End of Part 1-