Locksmith Unearths $22 Billion Treasure, But It Ends in Heartbreak

After over seven months of relentless excavation, the locksmith uncovered a portion of the treasure, only to have it taken from him soon after. General Yamashita Tomoyuki’s gold vault in the Philippines is renowned worldwide as one of the most famous lost treasures. During World War II, the Japanese military amassed vast amounts of gold and silver from across Southeast Asia, storing them in the Philippines.

Rogelio Roxas took a photo with the golden Buddha statue. (Source: Sohu)

On the eve of Japan’s defeat, Yamashita Tomoyuki arranged to bury this gold in numerous locations across the Philippines. To maintain secrecy, once buried, the tunnels were rigged to collapse.

Japanese General Yamashita was escorted from court after being sentenced to hang on December 31, 1945.

Following Japan’s surrender, Yamashita Tomoyuki was executed by the Allies. While some of the gold was seized by the US military, the majority remained buried deep underground.

General Yamashita surrendered to US troops in the Philippines.

Rogelio Roxas, a locksmith and former soldier in the Philippine army, stumbled upon invaluable information regarding the whereabouts of General Yamashita Tomoyuki’s gold vault in the Philippines. Upon learning of its preliminary location, Roxas promptly filed a claim for the treasure, which was approved by Pio Marcos. He swiftly organized a team to commence the arduous excavation.

After approximately seven months of effort, a network of tunnels was discovered around January 1971. Among the findings were electrical wiring, radios, bayonets, rifles, and human skeletons clad in Japanese uniforms. These discoveries bolstered their confidence in locating General Yamashita Tomoyuki’s gold treasure.

Rogelio Roxas took a photo with a golden Buddha statue he said he found in a cave.

Photograph of Rogelio Roxas with the Gold Buddha he found in the cave as a part of the Yamashita Treasure.

Following weeks of excavation, workers unearthed a towering golden Buddha statue, standing approximately 3 meters tall and weighing about a ton.

In addition to the Buddha statue, Roxas also uncovered a cache of meticulously arranged ink cartridges, which, upon opening, revealed 24 gold coins.

Photograph of the gold bars found by Rogelio Roxas and his team and removed from the cave in 1996.

Roxas, the triumphant treasure hunter, returned home with the Buddha statue and gold artifacts. He also uncovered a moveable golden Buddha head containing numerous uncut diamonds.

Roxas documented his discovery with a photograph alongside the Buddha statue, securing his claim to the treasure, as per Philippine law at the time, entitling him to a portion of the recovered assets.

However, in the early hours of May 4, 1971, armed assailants stormed Roxas’s home, violently assaulting him and his family, and absconding with the golden Buddha statue and 17 liters of gold (Roxas had sold 7 liters of gold). Roxas was subsequently imprisoned and subjected to brutal torture in an attempt to extract the treasure’s location. It wasn’t until 1974 that he was finally released, after which he lived in seclusion for the next twelve years.

In February 1986, with President Ferdinand Marcos in exile in Hawaii, USA, Roxas pursued legal action against Marcos’s former spouse for the theft of his treasure. However, Roxas’s death a few years later remains shrouded in mystery.

melda Marcos photographed with the Gold Buddha statue in 1996.

In 1996, the Honolulu court ruled in favor of Roxas’s estate, ordering Marcos’s ex-wife to pay $22 billion in compensation. Despite this, many researchers believe that the majority of the assets from “General Yamashita Tomoyuki’s Gold Treasury” still lie hidden deep within the Philippines, scattered across approximately 172 locations, including around 18 golden Buddha statues, leaving much of the Philippines’ allure shrouded in mystery.