Roger ROXAS and The Golden Budha Corporation v. Estate of Ferdinand Marcos and Imelda Marco

Roxas worked as a locksmith in Baguio City, the Philippines.
He was also an
amateur coin collector and treasure hunter. In 1961, Roxas met
a man named Fuchugami in Baguio City, who claimed that his
father had been in the Japanese army and had drawn a map
identifying the location of the legendary "Yamashita Treasure."
The treasure purportedly consisted of booty, which had been
plundered from various Southeast Asian countries, during World
War II, by Japanese troops under the command of General
Tomoyuki Yamashita and which was allegedly buried in the
Philippines during the final battle for the islands in order to
keep it out of the hands of the Americans.

At around the same time, Roxas met Eusebio Ocubo, who claimed
to have served as General Yamashita's interpreter during World
War II. Ocubo advised Roxas that, during the war, he had been
taken to some tunnels controlled by General Yamashita, in order
to retrieve silver to pay for food for the Japanese troops.
There, he observed boxes of various sizes that contained gold
and silver. Shortly thereafter, he also observed a golden
buddha statue, which was kept at a convent near the tunnels.

Armed with Fuchugami's description of his father's maps and
Ocubo's representations, Roxas organized a group of partners
and laborers to search for the treasure and obtained a permit
for the purpose from Judge Pio Marcos, a relative of Ferdinand.
Judge Marcos informed Roxas that, in accordance with Philippine
law, a thirty-percent share of any discovered treasure would
have to be paid to the government.

Sometime in 1970, Roxas's group began digging on state lands
near the Baguio General Hospital. After approximately seven
months of searching and digging "24 hours a day," the group
broke into a system of underground tunnels.

Inside the tunnels, the group found wiring, radios, bayonets,
rifles, and a human skeleton wearing a Japanese army uniform.
After several weeks spent digging and exploring within the
tunnels, Roxas's group discovered a ten-foot thick concrete
enclosure in the floor of the tunnel. On January 24, 1971, the
group broke through the enclosure. Inside, Roxas discovered a
gold-colored buddha statue, which he estimated to be about
three feet in height. The statue was extremely heavy; it
required ten men to transport it to the surface using a chain
block hoist, ropes, and rolling logs. Although he never weighed
the statue, Roxas estimated its weight to be 1,000 kilograms,
or one metric ton. Roxas directed his laborers to transport the
statue to his home and place it in a closet.

Roxas also found a large pile of boxes underneath the
concrete enclosure, approximately fifty feet from where the
buddha statue had been discovered. He returned the next day and
opened one small box, which contained twenty-four one-inch by
two-and-one-half-inch bars of gold. Roxas estimated that the
boxes were, on average, approximately the size of a case of
beer and that they were stacked five or six feet high, over an
area six feet wide and thirty feet long. Roxas did not open any
of the other boxes.

Several weeks later, Roxas returned to blast the tunnel
closed, planning to sell the buddha statue in order to obtain
funds for an operation to remove the remaining treasure. Before
blasting the tunnel closed, Roxas removed the twenty-four bars
of gold, as well as some samurai swords, bayonets, and other
artifacts. Roxas twice attempted to report his find to Judge
Marcos, but was unsuccessful in contacting him.

During the following weeks, Roxas sold seven of the gold bars
and sought a buyer for the golden buddha. Roxas testified that
Kenneth Cheatham, the representative of one prospective buyer,
drilled a small hole under the arm of the buddha and assayed
the metal. The test revealed the statue to be solid twenty-two
carat gold.[fn3] Roxas also testified
that a second prospective buyer, Luis Mendoza, also tested the
metal of the statue, using nitric acid, and concluded that it
was "more than 20 carats."

On April 1, 1971, Roxas showed the buddha to a third
prospective buyer, Joe Oihara, who was accompanied by another
individual, Romeo Amansec. Oihara told Roxas that he was
staying at the home of Ferdinand's mother, Josefa Edralin
Marcos. Oihara examined the buddha at length, performed another
assay, and also closely scrutinized the designs on the statue.
He indicated an interest in buying the buddha, promising to
return in several days with a partial payment of one million
pesos. Rendered suspicious by Oihara's long scrutiny of the
buddha, Roxas undertook his own examination and discovered that
the head was removable. Inside, he found "more than two
hand[s]ful" of what he surmised to be uncut diamonds. He placed
the diamonds in his closet near the buddha and replaced the
head.

2. The raid on Roxas's house

On April 5, 1971, at 2:30 a.m., men purporting to be from the
Criminal Investigation Service (CIS) and the National Bureau of
Investigation (NBI), two Philippine national security agencies,
knocked on Roxas's door, claiming to have a search warrant.
When Roxas failed to respond, the men broke two of Roxas's
front windows and pointed the barrels of their rifles inside.
They informed Roxas that if he did not open the door within
three minutes he would be shot.

Roxas opened the door, and eight men wearing military
uniforms entered the house, accompanied by Oihara. They briefly
displayed a document that they claimed was a search warrant.
Before they snatched it away, Roxas was able to determine that
it contained language regarding a "violation of [a] Central
Bank regulation and illegal possession of firearms" and that it
was signed by Judge Marcos. The men beat Roxas's brother with
their rifles and ordered Roxas's family and his two bodyguards
to lie down on the floor. When they left, they took the buddha,
the diamonds, the remaining seventeen bars of gold, the samurai
swords, a piggy bank belonging to Roxas's children, and his
wife's coin collection.

Roxas reported the raid to the media and the local police.
Subsequently, he went to Judge Marcos's home. Roxas asked Judge
Marcos why he had signed the search warrant. Judge Marcos
responded that he had had no choice because "the principe"
("the prince") had ordered the confiscation. When Roxas asked
who "the principe" was, Judge Marcos responded that it was
Ferdinand. Judge Marcos also advised Roxas that it was Oihara's
companion, Amansec, who had initially applied for the search
warrant, claiming to have seen a gun in Roxas's house. Judge
Marcos appeared angry that Roxas had reported the case to the
police and the media and stated that, as a result, the CIS and
the NBI would likely kill Roxas. Roxas interpreted Judge
Marcos's remarks as a threat; nevertheless, on April 7, 1971,
Roxas returned to the police station and signed a complaint.

Roxas and his family traveled to Cabantuan City to enlist the
aid of Provincial Governor Joson, who provided Roxas with four
bodyguards. Roxas then went into hiding in Cabantuan City. Soon
thereafter, on April 19, 1971, the military deposited a buddha
statue with the City Court in Baguio City.

While he was in Cabantuan City, Roxas was approached by
Rosario Uy and Anita Igna. They offered Roxas three million
pesos to publicly affirm that the buddha statue held by the
court was the same one that he had found. They also told him
that they represented Ferdinand's mother. Roxas refused the
offer. Later, Uy reached him by telephone and renewed the
offer, assuring Roxas that he need not be afraid to accept
because Ferdinand would be the one paying him. Roxas again
refused.

Roxas's story began to appear regularly in the newspapers,
radio, and television and to attract the attention of
opposition politicians. Roxas met with a number of politicians,
as well as with Philippine Secretary of Justice Vicente Abad
Santos. Roxas told the Secretary his story, and the Secretary
promised to guarantee Roxas's safety for a trip to Baguio City
to identify the buddha in the City Court.

On April 29, 1971, Roxas traveled to the courthouse in Baguio
City, accompanied by his bodyguards, two prosecutors from the
Justice Department, a lawyer whom Roxas had hired, and a number
of reporters and cameramen. Upon examination of the statue,
Roxas concluded that it was not the same buddha that he had
discovered because: (1) its color was different; (2) it had
different facial features; (3) the head was not detachable; and
(4) there was no hole under the arm where the original buddha
had been drilled. On camera, Roxas announced his conclusion to
those present. Roxas then brought the group to his house, where
he showed them the damage caused by the raiding party and the
closet where he had stored the buddha. Roxas later received an
invitation to testify before the Philippine senate about the
events; he did so on May 4, 1971.

3. Arrest and torture

On May 18, 1971, Roxas was arrested in Cabantuan City by
three men in civilian clothing. Roxas testified that the men
told him "to go with them to make a negotiation with the
President." They also reassured him, "Don't be afraid. We are
under Malacanang[fn4] - you know, we are under Malacanang agent. We
can make a negotiation to the President, and nothing more." The
men took him to the home of Colonel Ponciano Gonzales.

There, an individual identified as Colonel Olivas punched
Roxas in the stomach five times. When Roxas asked him why he
was being beaten, Colonel Olivas responded, "You're mentioning
the name of the President[.]" One of the men then said, "We
must report to the President that Rogelio Roxas is in our
custody." Colonel Olivas placed a telephone call, during which
he appeared to Roxas to be speaking to Ferdinand, because he
addressed the other party as "Mr. President."

Subsequently, Roxas was taken to the constabulary
headquarters in San Fernando, Pampanga. Once there, a number of
soldiers led him to a dark room, where he was shown a picture
of his wife and children and told that he must cooperate if he
wanted to see them again. The soldiers ordered Roxas to
"pinpoint those senators, that they pay me to implicate the
name of the president." Roxas refused to sign such a statement,
and the soldiers responded by shocking him with wires attached
to a large battery. The soldiers also interrogated Roxas about
the location of the remaining treasure; however, he refused to
divulge this information. The soldiers continued to shock him
for several hours and, on one occasion, burned him with
cigarettes.

Roxas was then taken to the residence of a judge, where he
was directed to sign an affidavit. However, because of the
torture he had endured, he was unable to clasp his hand around
the pen, and, therefore, could not sign. The soldiers then
transported Roxas to a hotel in Angeles City. There, he was
questioned again about the location of the treasure. When he
refused to respond, he was beaten with a rubber mallet until he
passed out. After the beatings, he noticed a great deal of
damage to his right eye and ear, neither of which ever fully
healed.

Roxas was kept in a room at the hotel for two weeks, during
which time he was repeatedly ordered to sign yet another
affidavit. This affidavit averred that the raid in his house
had been performed "in a peaceful manner" and that the members
of the raiding party had possessed no automatic weapons as had
been reported in the press. When Roxas finally signed the
affidavit, he was brought back to the city court in Baguio City
and ordered to point at the buddha statue while being
photographed and to identify gold bars as those taken from his
home.

That night, Roxas picked the lock on the window of his room
and escaped. After finding refuge at his sister's home, Roxas
contacted a senator and was again asked to testify before the
senate, which he did on June 30, 1971. In his deposition in the
instant case, Roxas testified that, during the June 30, 1971
hearing, he told the senators about being tortured.

After the senate hearing, Roxas returned to Baguio City. Once
there, he received a letter from Cesar Dumlao, a finance
officer at the Malacanang, requesting a meeting on behalf of
Ferdinand. Roxas met with Dumlao and was shown a letter, which
indicated that Ferdinand was offering to pay him five million
pesos. Roxas was instructed to return the next day; however, he
did not report back because he became frightened.

One week after his return to Baguio City, Roxas was arrested
for failing to appear at a hearing on an illegal weapons charge
that had been pending against him since January 28, 1971. He
was brought before a judge, who ordered him incarcerated as a
result of his default.

On August 21, 1971, Senator Osmena sent an attorney to bail
Roxas out of jail. Roxas traveled with the attorney to Manila
to meet with Senator Osmena. Senator Osmena asked Roxas to
speak at a political rally that evening. Roxas agreed, but he
was unable to speak because the rally was bombed before he
could start. Roxas ran away and went into hiding for almost one
year.

When Roxas finally returned to his Baguio City home in July
1972, he was immediately arrested by two men, who represented
to him that they were from the CIS. These men took Roxas to a
naval base in the province of Zambales, where he was confined
in the stockade. While there, Roxas was questioned by
Provincial Commander Rodolfo Patalinghod about his discovery of
the golden buddha.

On September 21, 1972, Ferdinand declared martial law in the
Philippines; the order remained in effect until 1983. After the
declaration, General Fabian Ver visited Roxas in his cell.
General Ver admitted that he had been among the raiding party
at Roxas's house. He also told Roxas that there had been "an
order to kill [Roxas] by the military," but that the order had
been canceled when it was discovered that Roxas was a member of
the Church of Christ. He advised Roxas to keep quiet about his
case, in light of the fact that martial law had been declared.

In January 1973, Roxas was transferred to a prison camp in
Baguio City and tried on the charges of possession of an
illegal firearm and unlawfully firing a revolver into the air.
He was convicted of both counts by the Third Branch of the City
Court of Baguio and sentenced, in connection with the first
charge, to an "indeterminate penalty of imprisonment ranging
from One (1) year and One (1) day as minimum to Four (4) years
as maximum" and, in connection with the second, to a fine.
Judgment was entered on January 31, 1973. During his
incarceration, Roxas was beaten and questioned about the
location of the treasure on two occasions by a man known as
Colonel Gemoto - who identified himself as a member of the
"Task Force Restoration" - accompanied by representatives of
the CIS.

4. Military excavations

Roxas was released from prison on November 19, 1974. When he
arrived home the next day, he noticed soldiers standing outside
tents near the Baguio General Hospital. Sometime in December
1974, some soldiers visited Roxas in his shop and told him that
they were members of the Task Force Restoration, which was
conducting excavations behind the hospital. They listed their
address in Roxas's logbook (which was never produced at trial)
as Malacanang Palace. The soldiers asked him to come with them
to help with the excavation; he refused. Roxas passed by the
site in 1976 and saw that the excavations were still ongoing.
In October 1976, Roxas and his family moved to Visayan City,
where they stayed for the next ten years without further
incident relating to the Yamashita treasure.

Juan Quijon (Juan) and his son, Romulo Quijon (Romulo),
corroborated Roxas's testimony regarding the excavations. Juan
had

worked as a nursing attendant at Baguio General Hospital from
1945 to 1988. He noticed a number of soldiers involved in
excavation behind the hospital between 1974 and 1975. Over a
one-week period, Juan observed men carrying large wooden boxes
out of a tunnel and placing them in trucks. Each box was
carried by at least four - and sometimes six - men. The
soldiers' uniforms bore the initials "PSC," and the trucks had
the letters "PMA" painted on them. Juan also observed men
removing some steel boxes with the aid of a winch. The soldiers
left in August 1975.

Romulo testified that he worked as a cook for the soldiers
performing excavations behind the hospital in 1974. Romulo
testified that the "PSC" on the soldiers' uniforms stood for
"Presidential Security Command," and the "PMA" painted on the
trucks stood for "Philippine Military Academy." The soldiers
employed civilians to perform most of the digging. Romulo saw
these civilians pushing and pulling boxes out of a hole and
loading them into trucks. The boxes appeared to be old and in
poor condition. Some fell apart while being carried, and
gold-colored bars fell out onto the ground. Romulo observed
approximately ten boxes per day being loaded into trucks over
a period of one year. He testified that the soldiers were "very
strict" about keeping the public out of the area and that armed
guards were posted at the trucks during the loading.

5. Laundering and sale of the gold

Robert Curtis, an American owner of a mining and refining
business in Sparks, Nevada, testified that, in late 1974, he
received a number of telephone calls from Norman Kirst, an
associate of Ferdinand, inviting him to travel to the
Philippines to meet the president. Kirst stated that Ferdinand
wanted Curtis's company to resmelt some gold bars and change
the "hallmarks." Ferdinand also wanted Curtis to change the
chemical composition of the gold while resmelting it so that
its origin would not be identifiable. Curtis initially refused
the invitation, but finally relented and traveled to the
Philippines to meet with Ferdinand.

When he arrived, Curtis met with a number of Ferdinand's
aides and generals, including General Ver. He also met with
Colonel Lachica, who was "Imelda Marcos' personal security and
went with her wherever she went." Colonel Lachica took part in
the conversations about resmelting and "rehallmarking and
purifying the gold[.]" Finally, after approximately ten days,
he met with Ferdinand, Olof Jonsson (another American, see
infra), General Ver, and Kirst.

Ferdinand told Curtis that he had recovered an enormous
amount of gold from the Yamashita treasure, which he had found
at various sites, and that he needed help because the
"International World Court had . . . passed a ruling that any
. . . World War II treasures that were recovered would revert
back to the countries from . . . whence they were taken."
Ferdinand told him that he had so much gold that selling it
could have a large effect on the world economy or even "start
World War III."

Curtis also testified that General Ver had brought him to a
basement room in the Marcoses' Miravelles summer palace, where
the gold bars were kept. Curtis entered a room "about roughly
40 by 40," stacked to the ceiling with bars of gold. He
estimated the ceiling to be ten feet high. Two or three
four-foot wide aisles ran through the stacks of gold. The bars
were in a standard seventy-five kilogram size. He noticed that
the bars had "[o]riental markings" on them. Later, Ferdinand
showed Curtis a solid gold buddha statue with a removable head,
which Curtis identified from the pictures taken at Roxas's
house as the same buddha that Roxas had discovered.

On cross-examination, Curtis testified that his study of the
Yamashita treasure had suggested that the treasure contained
eighteen buddhas and was distributed among 172 sites. He also
testified that Ferdinand had told him that the gold that Curtis
had seen
had come from a site in the Luzon region. Moreover, in 1975,
while Curtis was working with Ferdinand, another site was
discovered in the town of Teresa, and more gold was retrieved.

Curtis and others began the work of designing and building a
refinery in the Philippines to fulfill Ferdinand's requests.
However, on July 5, 1975, General Ver took him to a military
cemetery at Fort Bonafacio, walked him to a freshly-dug hole,
and put a gun to his head, saying "[W]e're good friends but[,]
I'm sorry, I have to do this." Curtis was able to talk General
Ver out of shooting him and then quickly left the Philippines.
He did not return to the Philippines as long as Ferdinand
remained in power.

Olof Jonsson also testified that he had seen stacks of gold
bars. Jonsson testified that he had first traveled to the
Philippines at the invitation of a colonel stationed at Clark
Air Force Base. He was brought there to use his powers as a
psychic to locate gold that the colonel believed to be buried
there. Jonsson described his psychic powers as including
telekinesis, clairvoyance, telepathy, and the power to
dematerialize objects with his mind.

While he was in the Philippines, Jonsson was asked to meet
Ferdinand. He was brought to Ferdinand's office in the
Malacanang Palace. Ferdinand invited Jonsson to stay at a guest
house on the palace grounds. After several weeks, Jonsson left
the Philippines, but he returned in 1975 with Curtis when the
latter had traveled to the Philippines in order to discuss
resmelting gold with Ferdinand. On this occasion, Jonsson met
again with Ferdinand and General Ver. General Ver showed him a
basement room in the guest house outside Malacanang Palace and
another room in the summer palace, both filled with gold. He
was also shown a golden buddha in the summer palace that was
too heavy for him to move. Jonsson described the basement room
in the guest cottage as being approximately twenty feet wide,
forty feet long, and twelve feet high. He estimated the room in
the summer palace as measuring "probably 40 feet by 25 or
something" and twelve feet in height. Both rooms were filled
with two-foot-long bars of gold stacked to the ceiling. Jonsson
testified that it was possible that the bars were four inches
wide and four inches thick, but that he could not recall
exactly.

A number of witnesses also testified regarding Ferdinand's
alleged attempts to sell his gold surreptitiously. Two
Australian citizens, Michael O'Brien and John Doel, testified
that they were partners in an Australian real estate venture.
In 1983, O'Brien and Doel were seeking capital to finance their
project. The partners met a Malaysian, Andrew Tan Beng Chong
(Tan), who asked the partners to serve as brokers for the sale
of ten thousand metric tons of gold in exchange for commissions
on the sale. When O'Brien asked Tan the identity of the owner
of such a large amount of gold, Tan stated only that the gold
was available and could not be sold by regular means because of
the source. O'Brien and Doel agreed to assist and created a
company, designated "Remington," to carry out the transactions.
The partners found buyers for the gold, and Doel subsequently
traveled to the Philippines on April 20, 1983 at Tan's
instruction. Doel met with Colonel Eike Manois, who claimed to
represent the principal seller in the transaction but refused
to disclose the seller's identity. At a subsequent meeting,
however, a man identified as "Doming" Clemente, an associate of
the colonel's, told Doel that Ferdinand was the owner of the
gold. Clemente also stated that Imelda was aware of the
transaction, but that Ferdinand was handling the details.

During the time that Doel and O'Brien were working on
completing the transaction, Clemente relayed an offer from
Ferdinand to sell Doel a one-ton golden buddha that Ferdinand
had obtained in Baguio City. Doel refused the offer. Clemente
also told Doel that the gold bars, which were the object of
their transaction, had been "war booty items" and had been
"buried in tunnels behind the hospital at Baguio City."

O'Brien also traveled to the Philippines. At one point, when
he expressed doubt as to the existence of so much gold, he was
blindfolded and taken to a warehouse. Inside the warehouse was
a stack of approximately three hundred to four hundred boxes,
each the size of a six-pack of beer. O'Brien
opened one and observed that it contained three crudely smelted
gold bars, which he described as being pitted "like an orange
peel." He tried to lift several other boxes and found them too
heavy to move. The partners were successful in having the
parties sign contracts for the sale of the gold, but, as of
July 1983, only a portion of the contracts were executed to
their knowledge.

Norman Dacus, a retired American police officer, testified
that he lived in the Philippines between August 1983 and April
1985. Dacus had relocated there because he had been recruited
by a friend, Joseph Zbin, to become his partner "in brokering
gold for [President] Marcos[.]" Dacus met with O'Brien and
Clemente with respect to arranging gold transactions. He also
met with Ferdinand, General Ver, and other army officers. Dacus
was involved in "educating" Ferdinand about "how gold has a
fingerprint on it and how you can tell which gold comes from
which country." Ferdinand advised him that the first increments
of gold he planned to sell were in ten-kilogram ingots, bearing
the stamp of the Central Bank. At a subsequent meeting,
Ferdinand stated that some of the gold was in metric ton
blocks. On one occasion, Dacus was shown what he estimated to
be one hundred metric tons of gold, located in a vault at the
Coconut Planter's Bank. Later, Dacus was flown to Ilocas Norte
and taken to a shrine constructed for Ferdinand. Inside, he
observed an approximately four-foot tall, gold-colored buddha
statue and what he estimated to be three hundred to five
hundred metric tons of gold comprised of twenty-five kilogram
ingots.

Based on portions of the testimony of Robert Curtis, Olof
Jonsson, Michael O'Brien, and Norman Dacus, Nelson Colton, a
longtime gold trader and manager in the gold refining industry,
rendered an opinion regarding the value of the gold that the
witnesses had allegedly observed. Colton estimated the volume
and value of the gold described by the various witnesses in
terms of the price of gold on the world market on various
dates, including the time of the alleged conversion and in
1980, when gold was at its highest world price subsequent to
the alleged conversion.

6. Move to Hawawii

On February 25, 1986, after they were removed from power by
a popular revolution, the United States government transported
Ferdinand and Imelda to Haw.. Soon thereafter, Roxas
contacted a childhood friend, Felix Dacanay, who had become a
Georgia resident, to help him press his claims against the
Marcoses. On June 3, 1986, Roxas assigned all of his rights to
the Yamashita treasure to GBC, which Dacanay had incorporated
in Georgia, in exchange for a minority holding of non-voting
shares.

Richard Hirschfield, an American attorney, testified that he
met the Marcoses in Haw. in 1986 or 1987. Ferdinand hired
him to arrange for an eighteen million dollar loan from
Al-Fassi, a member of the Saudi royal family. Marcos offered to
secure the loan with gold bullion, of which he claimed to
possess tons. He told Hirschfield that he "had access to this
Yamashita Treasure from the General of the Japanese War."
Hirschfield also testified that either Ferdinand or Imelda told
him that they had taken a golden buddha from the person who
discovered the treasure and replaced it with a brass buddha.

7. The Baguio City Court proceeding regarding the
buddha

Roxas died on May 25, 1993. On April 20, 1995, his brother,
Jose Roxas (Jose), commenced an action in Branch III of the
Regional Trial Court of Baguio City, praying for release of the
buddha statue being retained by the clerk of court and claiming
that "I and our family desire to keep the said buddha as a
m[e]mento of our late brother, ROGELIO D. ROXAS." Jose's
petition was supported by two of Roxas's sons; however, Jose
admitted to the court that Roxas had had a number of children
out of wedlock whose names he did not know "because [Roxas] had
several mistresses."

Verdict for plaintiff for $22 billion.

Unknown

Unknown

Affirmed by the Supreme Court of Hawaii on