The history of stolen Golden Buddha under the dictators regime the Rogelio Roxas story

 

A Filipino treasure hunter found the Los gold of world war II and the dictator stole it from him. The Japanese military amassed a fortune in looted gold, a Japanese general Tomoyuki Yamashita hid the treasure throughout the Philippines and a complex system of underground tunnels.

Yamashita was executed for war crimes in 1946 and took the location of the immense bounty with him. 

Some claimed the CIA found it. Others insisted it was still out there. Well, Rogelio Roxas. A former Filipino soldier dedicated his life to finding the treasure in 1971, the allegedly succeeded Roxas said he found a tunnel full of world war II, era rifles, bayonets radios, and a skeleton wearing a Japanese army uniform. He also found a 10-foot thick concrete wall. 

He blasted through it and uncovered a 2000 pounds solid gold statue of Buddha surrounded by crates of gold bars with an untold amount. And it was still only a fraction of what Yamashita had hidden. Ferdinand Marcos, the wealthy craze, dictator of the Philippines learned of the discovery. Then Marcos ordered his men to raid Roxas home where part of the treasure was hidden.

They stole the Buddha, the gold bars, even the piggybank of Rojas children. Roxas was later beaten and tortured for the locations of the remaining treasure, but divulge nothing. Marcos and his wife Imelda fled to Hawaii in 1986 in 1988, Roxas sued the former dictator over the stolen treasure in Hawaiian court. But before he was supposed to testify, Roxas die under what many considered suspicious circumstances. 

But the trial went on in 1992. Imelda Marcos admitted much of her husband's wealth was built on Yamashita gold. And in 1996, a jury awarded Rogelio Roxas and his investors $22 billion, the largest award in judicial history. At that time, the court record clearly stated that Rojas found a portion of the Yamashita treasure that Marcos had stolen. - History Channel