BELIEVE IT OR NOT: THE FACTS, THE BACKGROUND AND PROCESS OF THE GREATEST LOOT IN HISTORY

Roger Roxas and his team of treasure hunters discovered a gold statuette of Buddha, almost three feet tall and too heavy to lift. On this day they borrowed a truck and brought the Buddha back to Roger's house at 47 Ledesma Street in Baguio. It was two in the morning.

When they finally got to weigh the statue they saw that it weighed 2,000 pounds.

A representative from the Treasure Hunters Association in Manila, Louie Mendoza, tested the Buddha and said it was 22-karat, about 92 percent pure gold. Another treasure hunter, First Lieutenant Ken Cheatham of the US Air Force at Clark, came with his friends to see the Buddha and took a lot of photos.

At two thirty in the morning of this day, Holy Monday, Marcos' uncle, Judge Pio Marcos, authorized the search of Roger Roxas' house because Roger had allegedly violated a Central Bank regulation. The search became messy and violent. At the end of the day, the Buddha was gone.

Roger was picked up, blindfolded and driven to a secret location outside Manila. He thought it was a military camp in Pampanga. They tortured him until he signed a confession stating Marcos was not involved in the theft of the Buddha.

The Azio Foundation was set up in Vaduz.

The bombing of opposition rally at Plaza Miranda: Roger Roxas was to be the main opposition exhibit in the anti-Marcos campaign to dramatize the gold-greed and tyrannical methods of the President. The suspension of the writ of habeas corpus followed a month later - one of the elements forming the yearlong prelude to martial law.

The Rosalys Foundation was set up in Vaduz.

Rosalys Foundation opened a bank account # 51960 at Swiss Bank Corporation. From this day to June 30, 1980, Berlin and Company would transfer US$10.3 million into this account.

The Charis Foundation was set up in Vaduz.

The start of the U.S.-Marcos Martial Law Regime, following Philippine Supreme Court decisions against foreign (i.e. US) ownership of land and in the wake of certitude that Marcos would not be legally allowed to run for a third term, not even by the ongoing Constitutional Convention, which he had so polluted with bribes and illegal interventions.

The Philippine Communist Party and its so-called New People's Army were then a very small insignificant group.

The Muslim secessionist movement was quietly gaining ground.

The middle forces of Christian and Social Democrats were on the ascendancy in both organization and propaganda.

With US help, specifically Richard M. Nixon's, Marcos now mounted the only successful coup, so far, in Philippine history -the coup which political scientists referred to as the "auto-golpe" because it was a coup against himself.

The rest is history (of systematic plunder and systematic human rights violations).

The Central Bank's gold reserves dropped to 1,057,000 ounces. Governor Licaros claimed that 800,000 ounces (about 22.7 tons) were sold to obtain much needed dollars - which would have brought in $28 million at the official price of $35 an ounce.

The Philippine Central Bank was a powerful entity in the Philippines. It was equivalent to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve in the US plus most of the functions of the Federal Depositors Insurance Corporation and various state banking commissions. As governor, Licaros had complete discretion in the purchase and sale of gold; he answered to no one except to the President.

A confidential source said that the gold mentioned here was sold not at official but at market value which was at least double the official price.

Under the Marcos regime, a Mafia-like code of silence was strictly observed to hide illicit transactions involving people's money.

In the rare occasion when the public got to know some of the illegal dealings, no problem.the technocrats - men of integrity and brilliance -would employ a technique they had developed into a high art, namely, the technique of the cover-up. They would justify cover-up on the ground that transactions were "confidential". Graft and corruption operations are always confidential. Of course.

Rayby Foundation was established in Vaduz.

On this day Fabian Ver wrote Marcos regarding a group code-named Task Force Restoration that was set up to recover treasure at Fort Bonifacio and Fort Santiago.

Olof Jonsson, noted psychic, and a friend, Cary Calloway, flew to Manila accompanied by Norman Kirst, who had just met Jonsson and offered to sponsor the trip. The trip was on Marcos' invitation with a view to treasure hunting. Later, Kirst called Bob Curtis in Reno, Nevada and invited him to be part of the group. Curtis supposedly possessed a new technology for extracting more gold per ton of material.

The idea of Marcos was to launder gold bars by melting them down and reprocessing them in order to eliminate identifying marks and to refine their purity.

The team included Villacrusis, Amelito Mutuc, Cesar Leyran, Ben Valmores and Pol Giga and Mario Lachica.

They called themselves the LEBER GROUP. Effective January 1, 1975, Americans could legally buy and possess gold. Goldmarkets all over the world were already buzzing with increased activity.

Charis foundation was renamed Scolari. The purpose was not clear - perhaps to throw future investigators off their trail.

Through these three years gold reserves stayed at exactly the same figure of 1,056,000 ounces - which would seem to be a statistical impossibility. They had never stayed at the same level before, even for two years running.

A secret decree not made public until after the Edsa insurrection was signed by Marcos today stating that in the event he became incapacitated or died, power would be turned over to Imelda.

Marcos invited Jonsson, Kirst, and Curtis for an overnight cruise on the presidential yacht. They went to Corregidor afterwards. Marcos had an office below which was a room that Ver took them to - about thirty square feet of gold bars stacked from floor to ceiling. They noticed the bars had what appeared to be Chinese markings.

Marcos' highway commissioner, Baltazar Aquino, went to Hong Kong at least ten times to collect "commissions" totaling $4,539,786.60 owed to Marcos by Japanese suppliers of the Philippine highways ministry.

In his own handwriting, Marcos amended the January 17th decree and clarified imelda's role as chairperson of committee with presidential powers.

Jack Anderson's Washington Post column mentioned that Marcos was looking for "buried World War II Japanese treasure in the Sierra Madre."Actually it was at a land site near Teresa, Rizal - at the foot of the Sierra Madre - that excavation began in mid-May of this year on orders of Fabian Ver following a map that showed a main tunnel about 300 yards long, fifty feet wide, and forty feet high with side tunnels at both ends of about 100 yards long - a site excavated for the Japanese by several hundred American, Australian and Filipino prisoners of war who were then killed and buried with the treasure.

On this day Marcos signed PD 1033, proposing 9 new amendments to the constitution, including the infamous Amendment 6 which would allow him to continue exercising his powers after martial law was lifted "whenever in my judgment…there exists a grave emergency or threat or imminence thereof.." - amendments which were all ratified the following month.

This month the Marcoses bought their first property in the U.S. - a condo in the exclusive Olympic Towers on Fifth Avenue in New York. Five months later they would also buy the three adjoining apartments, paying a total of $4,000,000.00 for the four and using Antonio Floirendo's company, Theaventures Limited in Hong Kong, as front for these purchases.

On New Year's Eve, Licaros had a problem. Foreign creditors wanted enough international reserves to cover three or four months of import requirements but there was only enough to cover two months. Today, New Year's Day Licaros had a solution taken straight from the book, Alice in Wonderland. There would be a new definition for the term "international reserves."

The term originally meant "all gold, foreign exchange assets of the Central Bank, and net foreign exchange holdings of the commercial banks." The new definition excluded the net foreign exchange holdings of the commercial banks because it had become an increasingly larger negative figure. Why? Because they were borrowing more and more dollars. Plus the new definition now included the Central Bank's borrowing as part of its foreign exchange assets.

Thus, with the stroke of a pen, the value of the reserves almost doubled, from $844.7 million to $1.525 billion, which was about 4.7 months of import requirements.

Marcos' friend Eulogio Balao was head of the Philippine Reparations Mission in Japan and collected the kickbacks there in yen, then used his diplomatic status to take the yen out of Japan, go to Hong Kong, and change it to US dollars at Berlin and Company, a foreign exchange dealer.

After Balao died in August 1977, Andres Genito, Jr., set up the Angenit Investment Corporation to receive the kickbacks and opened an account at Wing Lung Bank in Hong Kong. Berlin and Company transferred HK$44,030,378.00 from its account in Hang Lung Bank to Wing Lung Bank.

Today, after addressing the UN General Assembly, Imelda celebrated by going shopping and spending $384,000 including $50,000 for a platinum bracelet with rubies; $50,000 for a diamond bracelet; and $58,000 for a pin set with diamonds.

The day before, Vilma Bautista, one of her private secretaries, paid $18,500 for a gold pendant with diamonds and emeralds; $9,450 for a gold ring with diamonds and emeralds; and $4,800 for a gold and diamond necklace.

The Marcoses donated $1.5 million to Tufts University in Boston, endowing a professorial chair in East Asian and Pacific Studies at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. The students and professors discovered this and forced the school to reject the donation. To save face, the Marcoses were allowed to finance several seminars and lectures.

Still at her shopping spree, Imelda paid $450,000 for a gold necklace and bracelet with emeralds, rubies, and diamonds; $300,000 for a gold ring with emeralds and diamonds; and $300,000 for a gold pendant with diamonds, rubies, and thirty-nine emeralds.

Tonight at a predetermined time almost every street corner in Metro Manila overflowed with people beating on cans, pots and frying pans, shouting the name of Ninoy Aquino's party. "LABAN! LABAN! LABAN!" Massive popular protest was more than matched by massive voter fraud. Imelda won by a landslide. Ninoy who clearly topped the election did not make it in the counting - coming quite behind the least known of Imelda's party.

Today Marcos signed PD 602 ordering all gold producers to sell to the Central Bank. In September he inaugurated the new Central Bank Gold Refinery and Mint in Quezon City.

Steve Psinakis conducts his own investigation into the Marcos treasure hunts. The results are printed in a twenty-four part series in the Philippine News beginning this month, June 1978.Photos and documents added to the articles' credibility.

The year before, on October 1977, Psinakis masterminded the dramatic escape of his brother-in-law Eugenio Lopez Jr. and Sergio Osmena III. They broke out of a prison in Manila and flew to Hong Kong on a private aircraft. From there they were flown to the U.S. and granted political asylum.

After a trip to Russia, Imelda arrived in New York and immediately warmed up for a shopping spree. She started with paying $193,320 for antiques, including $12,000 for a Ming Period side table; $24,000 for a pair of Georgian mahogany Gainsborough armchairs; $6,240 for a Sheraton double-sided writing desk; $11,600 for a George II wood side table with marble top - all in the name of the Philippine consulate to dodge New York sales tax.

That was merely for starters.

A week later she spent $2,181,000.00 in one day! This included $1,150,000 for a platinum and emerald bracelet with diamonds from Bulgari; $330,000 for a necklace with a ruby, diamonds, and emeralds; $300,000 for a ring with heart-shaped emeralds; $78,000 for 18-carat gold ear clips with diamonds; $300,000 for a pendant with canary diamonds, rubies and emeralds on a gold chain.

After New York, she dropped by Hong Kong where a Cartier representative admitted it was this Filipina, Imelda, who had put together the world's largest collection of gems - in 1978.

In Vaduz during this month the names kept changing. The Azio Foundation was renamed Verso, Scolari was renamed Valamo, and Xandy was renamed Wintrop.

Baltazar Aquino collected the kickbacks from public highways funds ranging from 10 to 15%. On this day, $407,322.07 was credited to his account by Berlin and Company.

Imelda was named chairman of the cabinet committee, composed of all ministries, to launch the BLISS (Bagong Lipunan Sites and Services) program, an ambitious attempt to centralize control of all economic and social development. She assumed responsibility for the "11 needs of Man" codified in her ministry's mufti-year Human Settlements Plan, 1978-2000. By 1986, the number of Filipinos living below the poverty line doubled from 18 million in 1965 to 35 million. And the ecological balance of the country had degraded from 75 % to 27% forest cover remaining - with 39 million acres of forest falling victim to rampant logging. This was BLISS.

The Marcos couple celebrated their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary in a party that cost $5,000,000.00 There was a silver carriage drawn by eight white horses.

Two representatives of Standard Chartered Hong Kong Trustee, Ltd. - P.A.L. Vine and Lai Wai Hung visited Malacanang palace. A trust agreement was drawn up. Vine returned to Manila on December 5, 1980, and met with Rolando Gapud, Marcos' chief financial advisor and Gapud's erstwhile boss, Jose Y. Campos, one of Marcos' close friends. Two trust accounts - a dollar account and a peso account - were opened at Security Bank and Trust Company (SBTC). Campos was signatory for Marcos. These two accounts were owned by the trust in Hong Kong, which was owned and controlled by Marcos and Imelda.

Afterward, ten other trust accounts were opened at SBTC 7700,7710,7720, etc. and a deed of trust was executed between Standard Chartered and Security Bank for each account.

For example, the deed of trust for account 7730 was between Beneficio Investment ,Inc., a Panamanian Corporation, and SBTC. That account owned Beneficio Investment, whose bearer shares were held by Standard Chartered for Marcos and Imelda.

Aside from the Hong Kong accounts, other accounts were opened in Switzerland: in Credit Suisse, Banque Paribas, Lombard Odier et Cie, Swiss Bank Corporation, Swiss Volksbank, Finanz AG, Trade Development Bank and Bank Hoffman.

Accounts were opened at Barclays in London.

Also at offshore banks in Cayman Islands and New Hebrides.

In the US they had eighty-three accounts in nine banks, including Lloyds Bank and California Overseas Bank in Los Angeles, Redwood Bank in San Francisco, and Irving Trust, Citibank, Chase Manhattan, Chemical Bank, and Manufacturers Hanover in New York.

The money just kept pouring in.

Lucio Tan paid Marcos Php100 million a year. According to Gapud, Tan "belongs to the group that could get presidential decrees and letters of instruction from Mr. Marcos for their joint benefit." Marcos demanded 60 percent of the shares of Lucio Tan's holding company, Shareholdings Inc. which owned Fortune Tobacco, Asia Brewery, Allied bank, and Foremost Farms.

What applied to Tan was also true of the other cronies like Silverio of Delta Motors. About Php 10,000,000 in cash were deposited weekly in the SBTC accounts and then wire transferred to accounts in Hong Kong and from there to Swiss bank accounts controlled by the foundations.

As chief financial advisor, Gapud acquired hundreds of millions of dollars of shares in a multitude of companies - shares endorsed in blank by the original owner making them bearer certificates and allowing Marcos to avoid direct involvement but assuring him secret controlling interest in almost every industry in the nation - banking, insurance, mining, shipping, oil, sugar, coconut, manufacturing, construction, etc.

A house was purchased at 4 Capshire Drive in Cherry Hill, New Jersey (actually near to Philadelphia where Bongbong was taking courses at that time) for use by servants and Bongbong's security detachment.

The Marcoses did not neglect their annual real estate purchase. During this year and next year, 1979, they purchased two properties - one at 3850 Princeton Pike, Princeton - a 13-acre estate for use by daughter Imee as she attended Princeton. The other was a house at 19 Pendleton Drive in Cherry Hill for use of Bongbong and under the name of Tristan Beplat, erstwhile head of the American Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines.

In two days in New York this month, Imelda spent $280,000 for a necklace wet with emeralds and diamonds; $18,500 for a yellow gold evening bag with one round cut diamond; $8,975.20 for 20-carat gold ear clips with twenty-four baguette diamonds; $8,438.10 for 18-carat gold ear clips with fifty-two tapered baguette diamonds; and $12,056.50 for 20 carat gold ear clips with diamonds.

Gold reserves were on a steady annual rise from 1978 to date, gradually increasing to 1,900,000 ounces, or an average of 8 metric tons a year, which was about the equivalent of local production. The price of gold reached an all-time high of $875 an ounce this month.

Despite this, four chambers of commerce - the European, American, Japanese, and Australian - submitted a position paper under the guise of finding ways to attract new foreign investment. Red tape, corruption, and a flawed infrastructure were delicately criticized. The message: it had not been easy doing business in the Philippines.

This was decidedly a different tune from the one they sang to Marcos when the latter first abolished democracy in the land. Things looked rosy then but gradually the foreign business community realized even they were not playing on a level field.

Marcos attended the American Newspaper Publishers Association (ANPA) convention. Manglapus' Movement for a Free Philippines (MFP) had a field day - exposing the true Philippine situation. Under such pressure, the White House deliberately snubbed Marcos.

For $1,577,000.00 in New York Imelda buys Webster Hotel on West 45th Street. She rewards Gen. Romeo Gatan as a limited partner. Gatan arrested Ninoy at the beginning of Martial Law.