Written by Joe Espiritu
Four persons died in a treasure hunting accident last week. They died for nothing. Many had lost their shirts in the venture, the propensity for Filipinos to get rich quick attribute to the treasure hunting mania. The sad part is that only the ignorant venture on the search, those in the know, being sure that nothing will come out of the effort would not think of investing money, time and effort – this time lives – in a fruitless enterprise.
There had been stories of people getting rich uncovering treasure troves in unlikely places. Most stories are false. Ancient graves of archeological and anthropological value had been desecrated by treasure hunters. They had found nothing. Those people may have struck it rich but not from some hidden riches. Contrary to what other people say, there are no buried treasures in Bohol. If there had been, they were unearthed years ago.
If one traces the history of this province from the first time the humans settled in this island until the end of the Great War, the researcher would not find any instance where Bohol would be a repository of riches. The primitives who first settled in Bohol lived in the early stages of South East Asian civilization. They built no permanent structures or domesticated no animals. The subsequent waves of settlers may have brought plants, fowls and swine. Big cattle have been used as draft animals but seldom for meat.
Early Boholanos did not adorn themselves with trinkets of precious metals or gems. Nor did they dig for anything to be used as adornments. The appreciation for gold, silver and precious stones may started with the nobility of the Eastern empires and South East Asian kingdoms and have been brought to Bohol by Chinese traders The Europeans in search of spice and precious metals introduced the value of such things to the natives. There were stories of old misers hoarding their precious coins in tibuds or glazed jars and buried them under ancestral homes and those must have started the stories on hidden riches.
The stories of treasures started after the last war. The Imperial Japanese Army and Navy swept into South East Asia and India. They must have plundered treasuries along the way. However, the Nippon hetai may be a plunderer but he is not a thief. Whatever he might have obtained is sent to his country to sustain his war machine. However, the way home is beset with perils brought about by submarine warfare, aerial surveillance and bombardment.
The plunder from India, Burma and other places in South East Asia could not have passed southern or central Philippines much less Bohol. Only a part of the forces that conquered South Pacific have passed through this island. The retreating forces did not comer from gold rich areas. If there had been loot, it would have been local in origin and it might not be much.
The value of confiscated assets would determine the size of the escort. Riches of several millions would require at least a battalion strength guard. What could not be transported to the homeland would have been cached in some defensible or hidden place. Since memory is short and it may die out with the one who had hidden it maps might have been made so the cache could be located years later. Without those indicators, it would be like searching for a proverbial needle in a haystack.
There had been no major force that retreated through Bohol. A flotilla of thirty or more small ships passed Jagna from places south but they only replenished their water and food supply and sailed somewhere else. Records show that forces, which occupied the Philippines, were second-rate soldiers. Those that occupied Bohol did not come from some promising place. It they had any loot; it might just be local in origin and not much. Those that retreated with Gen Tomoyuki Yamashita never passed Bohol. In short, there is no treasure here. Those men died for nothing.
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