Unique tombs found in Mulanay, new treasure hunt in Marinduque

Feb. 26, 2011 photo released by the Philippine National Museum. Filipino archeologists gather items around a limestone coffin at Mount Kamhantik, near Mulanay town in Quezon province, eastern Philippines. Archeologists have unearthed remnants of what they believe is a 1,000-year-old village on the jungle-covered mountaintop in the Philippines with limestone coffins of a type never before found in this Southeast Asian nation, officials said, Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Philippine National Museum, Joe Santiago) 

From AP The Big Story Sept. 20, 2012 by Jim Gomez

"Archaeologists have unearthed remnants of what they believe is a 1,000-year-old village on a jungle-covered mountaintop in the Philippines with limestone coffins of a type never before found in this Southeast Asian nation, officials said Thursday.

"National Museum official Eusebio Dizon said the village on Mount Kamhantik, near Mulanay town in Quezon province, could be at least 1,000 years old based on U.S. carbon dating tests done on a human tooth found in one of 15 limestone graves he and other archaeologists have dug out since last year…

"The archaeological site is part of 280 hectares (692 acres) of forest land that was declared a government-protected area in 1998 to keep away treasure hunters and slash-and-burn farmers. Treasure hunters looking for gold exposed some of the limestone tombs years ago, but it was only last year that Manila-based archaeologists started to unearth the graves and artifacts and realize the significance of the find.

"Treasure hunting has damaged many archaeological sites in the country. In the early 1990s, Filipino archaeologists led by Dizon discovered that 2,000-year-old burial jars with unique human face designs had been destroyed by treasure hunters in a cave in Maitum town in southern Sarangani province.

"Archaeologists worked for a few years to glue the sack loads of clay shards piece by piece and restored more than 150 ancient burial jars to shape. Some of the Maitum jars are displayed at the National Museum in Manila with a plan to exhibit them in France next year, Dizon said.”

Mulanay is a neighboring town of island-Marinduque.

New treasure-hunting activities in Marinduque

Meanwhile, new reports of treasure hunting activities in Marinduque have resurfaced with diggers active again in another site believed to be hiding buried treasures. They reportedly come equipped with hand-held jackhammers to drill holes at the site. As in an earlier case concerning the digging of a suspected treasure site in Gasan that raised official concerns from the town’s local officials, the same group of people is apparently engaged once again in such digging in the new suspected treasure site with the knowledge of certain high-ranking local government officials.  

A day in the bushes to back up their buried treasure stories

It seems that personal accounts of buried treasures never go out of style here. And I love surprises, such as discovering the seeming willingness of people you meet, even for the first time, to share their own stories and back them up with proof when you show skepticism – like taking time out to physically show what you thought were just imaginary treasure sites, to give you the chance, perhaps, to merge fantasy with reality, but that’s for as long as you’re willing to walk into the bushes.

Into the bushes, all in a single day. 

Buried treasures in caves, caverns, rock crevices, beneath old trees, tao (people from another world who guard hidden treasures appearing and disappearing from thin air), many admissions of actual involvement in treasure hunting – accounts seem endless. Some have found something according to someone; one left to live a good life elsewhere after reportedly unearthing gold from someone’s backyard while working on a fence; one talks about a mysterious death in the family as kapalit, payment for the find as required by the tao… But personal involvement of those you might chance upon and who might eventually confess their knowledge, have a thing in common: first, they’ve undeniably found their treasures but in those cases, something eerie happens during the last few minutes, when the buried treasures are about to be pulled out from the pits – they are sucked down into the deep bowels of the earth, never to be found again, of course. In other instances, water would suddenly flood the treasure site in seconds and metal detectors, after confirming the presence of gold, would suddenly fall silent, unable to trace anything anymore.  


And more stories, but with back up proof this time?

It appears that there's no real distinction as far as the source of the buried treasure story is concerned. The accounts do come from people from all walks of life –  from the exploited poor to the high and mighty and chichi society . So either they all hopelessly lie about their stories or some are genuine, probably worthy of some pursuit.

Man-made dungeon of natural stones and darkened cement with a small entrance leading to a big chamber.


 Mr. A, one informant, refused to accompany us there for whatever personal reason, but graciously asked his wife who was babysitting for her grandson to take us there (in second photo above). Thick growth has covered the area that it took a while for the woman to locate it. Having rained the night before, it was not tempting to go down into the big hole to check the hidden chamber on the western side. We also didn't have any flashlights. According to Mr. A,  it had been emptied of whatever was hidden there, and there were many, by men who came in a batel a long, long time ago, an episode that he himself witnessed as a young boy.

Entrance leading to a spacious chamber.


Mr. A  said other treasure hunters followed years later but no one ever knew if anything more was found.
He remembers having found there a plate he used to keep, now lost, designed with characters he could not recognize, but he was certain the plate was made of aluminum. Mr. A expressed disappointment that we did not explore further inside, insisting it was safe and we would have seen how neatly the stones on the walls were arranged. 

From this site we headed to the secluded beach and therein wondered  if this piece of rock, found about 70 meters away from the open pit, is man-made or plain conglomerate.

Into a mangrove forest.


Hours later a Mr. B then led us to a distant coastal barangay where his family owned a coconut farm bordered by the shoreline. He wanted us to see a square depression showing that the sides had been created using fist-sized stones and cement. Being in the middle of a thick mangrove area that only goes under water during extreme high tide, no one knew who built it. His father and grandfather knew about it but they never, never in their lifetime, figured out what it was for. 

Mr. B had not checked the actual site for years now and appeared to have difficulty tracing it. He knew there were attempts to get into the bottom of it in the past, but upon finding it this time, was completely surprised that it had actually been excavated by who knows who.

A navigable estuary on the north side some 80 meters away.

This hole that could be found in another Marinduque barangay was dug up by strangers more than ten years ago, according to a Mr. C. Two large gusi, jars with treasures were purportedly recovered here by the diggers who did not even attempt to hide their deed by refilling the pit with soil. In fact, no one cared to refill this gaping hole all these years. 

Markings etched in rock from another site where caverns abound and no one paid attention to, or maybe just my imagination this time. But enough perhaps, for a short day.

Another tell-tale sign?

Treasure object magically surfaced!

A year ago, town officials of Gasan trooped to this estuary near the boundary of Boac-Gasan to check reports about the presence of heavy equipment there in relation to some treasure hunting. Denials followed from here and there, some quarters coming up with what seems to be absurd claims that the heavy equipment were there for 'some improvements' on the site such as planting peanuts that needed tight guarding.

Today, this is what we find there. The much talked about 'lamesang bato' ('lamesang ginto' is another variation) has surfaced. After reportedly securing the area including the narrow estuary with fences, one of the mystery objects has been dug up months ago and dragged towards the riverbank by whom and by how many, we don't know; turned upside down to see what's under and what's on that site... and was abandoned. We wouldn't know the complete straightforward story, maybe.

"NAGMALIW" (vanished) is what we hear in whispers as far as the treasures (that were supposed to be there), are concerned. But, listen, use of that almost archaic word, 'nagmaliw', now really means something vanishing into thin air. We are probably dealing with a different world here, remember? The realm of fairy tales and magic, you know...

A closer look reveals that the rock object is hollow inside. Was there anything there when found or was there simply nothing, nothing but air bubbles?

Photo taken a year ago when SB members of Gasan conducted an ocular inspection of the same site.

Trip to the Treasure Site in Bahi

And so the recent foiled attempt to steal the intriguing Bahi treasure has become part of the regular menu for inuman, drinking sessions, where people just freely dish out what they’ve seen and heard. One woman in such a session where I was had more to tell than anyone else because she actually lived in that place in Bahi.

“We could go there if you like, but best to wait for low tide. The top part of that lamesang bato actually surfaces during kati, extreme low tide”, she said.

Oh yeah?

So we accepted the surprise invite and agreed to meet at 4:00 p.m. the next day to check the site, hopefully to satisfy everyone’s growing curiosity.

It was drizzling, not an ideal time for going out but we went ahead anyway. Three curious women and myself. “The rain will cause the wawa to be murky, we may not see the lamesa, but let’s go”, the woman’s mother said. Bahi is just five and a half minutes away by tricycle from my barangay.

Her daughter and son-in-law met us. He immediately started rattling about how familiar he was with that bato, rock because it was his favorite spot as a young boy for catching crabs and shrimps that thrived in those waters. That rock was like a magnet for different forms of marine life clinging to it or breeding around it, he said.






“If I had known in those days that it could be hiding something, I could have started my own digging, a little at a time, you know, every time I went there. Just a little at a time That’s many years ago, we should have been rich by now”, he joked.

“What does that rock look like?”



“It’s round, about 2 ½ meters in size. I wouldn’t liken it to a table because it is not flat, but curved outward, shaped like a type of mushroom or bread even”.





As the slight drizzle continued, we soon found ourselves traversing a muddy and slippery path on the bank of the cloudy brackish wawa. “Some diggings have also been carried out over there sometime ago”, our male guide pointed to a muddy area by the bank, “but I don’t think they found anything. Once, somebody came with a metal detector but recovered only a rusty vehicle plate, very old”.








Naturally growing sasahan and mangroves thrive there, then we stopped in a clearing. Then our guide pointed a finger.




“It’s submerged right there”, he tossed a pebble on the water. “There! You can't see it now, but the water will clear up maybe after a week, then you could see it clearly”.



The women in our company gazed at the pinpointed spot quietly as if engaged in their own private musings about the buried treasures that lie under.



“So a shipping rope was tied to that treasure object by the men who attempted to remove it the other night?”

In addition to the shipping ropes now in police safekeeping, the guide also found on the beach a device made of iron tied to a small rope that the men also apparently left behind.

“Yes. Let’s go to where the wawa exits so you could see traces of what happened on the beach side”.



The mouth of the estuary ran towards the south. It was just knee-deep so we crossed it and reached the beach area. “You can still see the rope marks here”, he said.

Device tied to a rope left behind during the incident.

“Imprint is still here! There were actually two vessels pulling those ropes, I was told by my kumare”, our guide’s mother-in-law said pointing to the sand prints. “One was a tugboat pulling with a rope towards the northern side. The other was a barge on the southside. Here you could see from the imprints the direction of the rope, over there towards north you could see how the bushes were cleared by the strength of the other rope as it was being pulled”.

The police earlier maintained it was not possible to see anything towards the sea because the night was pitch black and the vessel/s were not lighted.

“How far is this from the treasure site?”

“Must be more than 150 meters from this end”, said the guide. “You know it’s getting more scary here now as we see more and more strange people moving about at nightime. I think they will try again”.

Farther south one could see from where we stood the Marinduque airport’s seaside. Farther north lies the Cawit Port.

“But what do you think is with that rock, where is the real treasure?”

“I think the idea is just to move that rock. Once they succeed in moving it, it will be much easier to find out what it really is. Is it a lid or what, and that could lead to more secrets being found. I just hope there are no explosives planted there by whoever placed it”, he said.

“But shouldn’t the national government be involved now to resolve this, to put an end to all these?”, our guide asked before we parted as the rain seemed to be getting more steady.

“Yeah, right you are, para nganing mas matuwid ‘yun ano?”, I said.








The site is about 40 meters away from the highest tide on the west side.

GASAN POLICE FOILS NEW ATTEMPT TO STEAL TREASURE

Following a brief lull, all it took was a dark night, men with firearms, a roaring vessel, shipping ropes, police and barangay officials responding, and curious residents roused from their sleep in the wee morning hours for a new episode to unfold on this treasure-hunting story that many, still in their sorry state of denial, could not accept as happening in Marinduque.

Three armed men were invited for questioning early yesterday morning by police offficers led by P/Insp. Russel Dennis Reburiano. The police responded to a call made by Bahi barangay captain Larry Soberano who, together with his barangay tanod decided to check an unusually loud mechanical sound coming from the direction of an earlier identified treasure site. The site is located in a shallow wawa, estuary.

The barangay officials accosted those men who were acting suspiciously on the beach area very close to the actual site but were told by the men to leave the area at once: “Kap, umalis na kayo, kami na ang bahala dito”, one of the men said. Two introduced themselves to the barangay captain as “Castillo” and “Eduardo”.

Upon questioning at the station, the three disclosed to Reburiano that they were coast guards assigned to the nearby Cawit Port. Checking with the Station Commander of the Philippine Coast Guard in Lucena City that holds jurisdiction over coast guard personnel in Cawit, they were identified and their last names recorded as Laureles, Baldago and Cabrera.

Reburiano said that due to zero visibility during the early morning hours his men did not consider getting closer to the treasure site as there could be others deployed there, that if also armed, might lead to a shootout. A roaring sea vessel, apparently a tugboat that had no illumination at all, therefore not visible, sped away before it could be identified. Morning light revealed a long trapa, heavy propylene shipping rope about 2 inches in diameter, tied to the supposed treasure object still lying submerged under water in the estuary.

That treasure is now being described as "an oval-shaped hardened concrete" that did not budge an inch during the attempt to recover it. The other end of the shipping rope ran to the sea and was retrieved easily, having been cut off by those other men onboard the vessel (police and barangay referred to the vessel as a barge), that disappeared into the night.


The coil of shipping rope left behind at the site is now in police custody. The three held for questioning were released at around 12:00 p.m. yesterday.

It will be recalled that the first attempt to recover the treasure only last month was halted following official intervention conducted by the Sangguniang Bayan of Gasan and municipal mayor, Victoria A. Lao-Lim. Said attempt involved the use of heavy equipment owned by the provincial government of Marinduque. The municipal council issued a resolution stating that stipulations and conditions pertaining to treasure hunting must be adhered to by all concerned and that barangay and municipal jurisdiction and rightful claim must be respected.

Lao-Lim had earlier directed P/Insp. Reburiano to vigilantly keep watch over such treasures for protection and preservation before they are “laid waste by vagabonds and illegal treasure hunters”.


Trapa, rope left behind by the vessel that fled from site

Deeper into the treasure hunting maze

Maze of paths

Well it happens that, sometimes, in the process of covering up any wrongdoing, one could take some remedy in such haste that only results in one being embroideled deeper and deeper into the maze he or she wittingly or unwittingly created, right?

When I started blogging about the now-famous treasure hunting episode in Brgy. Bahi, I underlined that such stories should be treated with skepticism as buried treasure stories abound in many corners of this mystical island of Marinduque. Some real, some so unreal and simply fantastic.

After a few more blogs about what’s being loudly whispered about in common folk functions, market places and neighborhood umpukan, I got hold of a copy of an official resolution from the municipal council of Gasan (Sanggunang Bayan), that in fact confirmed something about finding treasures was going on in a private property near an estuary in Brgy. Bahi, remember?

To refresh one’s memory said SB Resolution No. 2011-128 stated as follows:

“WHEREAS, alarmed by this report the Sangguniang Bayan conducted an ocular inspection of the place immediately after the declaration of recess of the regular session of May 16, 2011 and found out that efforts have been done to protect the place due to the regular visibility of law enforcers in order to deter other people from intrusion to the expected treasures thereat;

WHEREAS, at present, the place marked as a potential site of hidden treasures is still being strictly guarded to the extent that even the barangay officials of Bahi are prohibited to get into the place…”

Shortly thereafter, I got hold of photos taken during the ocular inspection conducted by the municipal council on May 16, 2011, and published some of them on June 7, 2011, right? Seeing government-owned equipment in the operation, I opined:

Many people obviously find it easier to just look the other way and not remark about any impropriety that may have been committed. Many more would just refuse to acknowledge or feign ignorance about the presence of those big monsters and insist on seeing and believing what they have yet to find, or claim that the workers were just out there on a picnic in the mangroves.

An avid facebook user from Marinduque, Lolong Rejano,re-posted some of those blogs on his fb page generating considerable interest from his followers. There were strong words from some, and as expected, also attempts from some to downplay official involvement in the matter, or diverting the topic by some all the way to the moon – the facebook way. Till the matter is forgotten, they hope, which is not farfetched, short memories of many considering.

But a few ventured an alibi, palusot, although belatedly, as to why government-owned heavy equipment were used in the famous treasure hunt: that the government equipment (photos showed that they consisted of a payloader, a grader and a truck), were rented. It seemed to me that if that was the case, there’s confirmation, indeed, that the provincial government has sanctioned the use of government equipment in a treasure hunting activity without any permit by government agencies concerned. And without permit, that operation could be considered illegal, right?

Now, when it comes to use by private contractors or individuals of government equipment, that’s in accordance with R.A. 7160 as part of LGU power to create own sources of revenue, indeed. But such use, first and foremost, should be covered by a rental agreement and processes, among them to wit:

“Upon approval of the request, the Private Contractor/Individual shall pay in advance to the Treasurer the total amount of charges for the use of the public utility;

“During the Rental Agreement Period, the Private Contractors/Individual shall provide the fuel and oil to be consumed by the public utility being rented/leased;

“Rental Period starts upon departure from and stops when returned to PEO compound of place of official assignment”.

So emphasis on “pay in advance to the Treasurer”. Needless to say, no agreement appears to have been secured prior to actual use of the equipment, nor any advance payment.

Standard rental agreements do not specify any special provisions for private contractors/individuals related to the governor, as is apparently the case here, the property owners being close relatives. Such standard agreements are normally approved by the sitting governor.

Now comes the information that on or about June 10, 2011 (and that’s 3 days after the discovery of the involvement of those government equipment was posted on this blogsite, and long after public concerns were conveyed by official stakeholders, and after much discussion on the matter occurred in the Internet), payment was made in haste for a total of P. 4,126.00 to the Provincial Treasurer representing payment for only two (2) hours each on the equipment (loader and grader).

And here comes a Special Report re Treasure Hunting, dated June 14, 2011, from the Gasan Municipal Police Station stating among others:

“Upon reaching the area, heavy equipment were found which was used to create accessible road to the area were (sic) the said treasure was buried in a shallow water. According Shiela Morales (sic) – the caretaker of the said lot, heavy equipments and certain personalities were already in the area for a week, clearing the area while others started there treasure hunting activity”.

“Heavy equipments”, “certain personalities”, coupled with the fact that the area was “temporarily watched over by PNP personnel of Provincial Public Safety Platoon as requested by the owner of the lot”, and the fact that “PNP personnel of Gasan MPS” were directed by the Gasan Mayor to inspect the area “since treasure hunting has no permit from concerned agencies as well as to the municipal government of Gasan” – all point to the fact that there are things highly irregular, contradictory and anomalous any which way you look at it in this modern-day treasure hunting story.

The said report stated that “the treasure hunting was stopped the day it was inspected” (illegal activity halted), and that by first week of June “PNP personnel from PPSP no longer render (sic) their duty". To secure unhampered operation sana?

Was it really a treasure-hunting activity or perhaps, something more sinister, was a question poised. (In Facebook discussions, some saw shades of the Ampatuans and capitol-owned backhoes from that infamous Maguindanao case).

So you see, the Bahi treasure hunt has turned out to be an intriguing story involving the high and mighty, their relatives, police forces with opposing missions, barangay and municipal stakeholders, cheer-dancers, the common tao, and you and me.

More interestingly, this Marinduque episode came within the same week when national newspapers and other media were trumpeting the involvement of the Governor of Marinduque, Carmencita O. Reyes in the scandalous national fertilizer scam that had taken the Ombudsman some seven years of thorough investigation and the nation in fury. On that one, Reyes posted bail in the amount of P. 60,000 on charges of technical malversation apart from violation of the anti-graft law.

Overheard:

“But, come on, can an 80-year old be sent to jail for those offenses in the Philippines?”

“Good question. But that's probably why things could be done with more impunity and callousness now?”

Browsed:

"Nothing like the Fertilizer Scam should happen under President Aquino’s rule. He seems to be carrying out his campaign promise to make his a corruption free government, which is why his administration has been sloughing off some key people."

Even relatives?

Yamashita treasure found its way to Marinduque?

Gen.Tomoyuki Yamashita, the Tiger of Malaya.

It’s only natural to be skeptical of treasure hunts and finds, as I am, unless one has convincing proof of their existence in identified locations. But the story I blogged about during the last few days may not be just a wild and fanciful tale as I initially thought. Now people are talking about “at least three golden tables equivalent to a six-seater in size that really shone brightly when illuminated by lightning”.

However, you’d at once wonder how anyone could make such a description when you hear another account that tells you that nothing's been recovered so far. So, you go back to your skepticism. The diggings have been temporarily suspended, but the police has constructed a bunkhouse to secure the area day and night say informed sources. So you consider that again.

I have established that the Japanese did set foot on that property during invasion of this island in 1942. I did not appreciate that information’s full significance until I spoke today with someone in authority who had his own experiences and researches on treasure hunts. These were places elsewhere - outside Marinduque. He was curious to find out, he said, if that area was used as a Japanese garrison. Whatever signs that may have been found now usually associated with hidden treasures would confirm the presence of such treasures if the area had been used for Japanese activities, he said. In fact, it was, I said, and showed him my yesterday's blog.

Maniwaya Island, one more of Marinduque's small islands with a similar hidden treasure story


So the next question is, could those ‘treasures’ be part of the famous Yamashita treasure?

Yamashita treasure is the collective name given to all the gold, jewelry and precious items stolen by the Japanese forces of Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita, the Tiger of Malaya, from East and Southeast Asia during World War II.

The treasures were said to have been first shipped to the port of Singapore from the various Asian countries, then to the Philippines for final shipment to Japan. That final shipment did not come to pass as Japan lost that war, but Yamashita, it is said, had time to order the concealment of those treasures, divided into many treasure hordes, in caves and other locations not only in Luzon but across the country.

Map of the Island of Marinduque

After World War II, intrigued by stories or myths of Japanese plunder, many local and foreign fortune seekers have travelled to many parts of the archipelago to find those treasures that many people merely treat as urban legend. But there have been many documented accounts, usually treated with utmost secrecy, of real treasure finds that required an elaborate method of recovery, as poisons, bombs and booby traps are said to be protecting them.

After a number of recoveries it became necessary for the government to cover all treasure-hunting activities under close scrutiny and regulation purportedly to protect the nation’s natural and cultural heritage. Appropriate permit should normally be obtained, a surety bond posted, irrespective of whether the hunt takes place on public or private land. Government will then take ownership of finds determined to have historical value and a committee will determine the finder’s share.

From Internet sources, the latest books that dealt with this subject are two by Sterling Seagrave and Peggy Seagrave: The Yamato Dynasty: The Secret History of Japan’s Imperial Family (2000) and Gold Warriors: America’s Secret Recovery of Yamashita’s Gold (2003).

So, the Bahi-Cawit hidden treasure may not be just a wild tale after all, you see.

Let's see!