Embarrassment of Riches!

The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism’s four-part report on the treasure hunts going on off the coast of Camiguin Island in the northern tip of Luzon must have stirred up a lot of emotions among readers -- among them are frustration and outrage. Consider this: A local marine salvage company, Pacific SeaQuest, discovered the wrecks of 33 World War II vintage warships, a Spanish galleon, an American trading vessel, and the USS Charleston, the largest battleship in the US Navy when it sank in 1899. Consider further: The sunken Japanese hospital ship that is now the subject of a massive hunt and cutthroat competition among hunters is said to contain “tons of gold and silver bullion, hundreds of boxes of gold and silver coins and various gold and silver objects consisting of gold Buddhas, statues, jewelry and sterling silver serving pieces and two large chest of jewelry.” And this: Another overloaded Japanese vessel, the Awa Maru which sank several hundred kilometers from the hospital ship also during the war, had a cargo which is now considered history’s riches treasure: “ 12 tons of platinum worth about $58 million, bales and bales of paper currency, hundreds of boxes of gold, treasures plundered throughout Southeast Asia by Japanese Occupation forces, it also carried 150,000 karats of uncut diamonds in three safes, 2,000 tons of tungsten worth about $4 million, 3,000 tons of tin worth $21 million, 2,000 tons of lead about worth about $41.4 million, 800 tons of titanium worth about $ 2.5 million.” All which add up to some $500 million although its total value could exceed $5 billion. The hospital ship could be worth as much. And these are just two of the several vessels in the savage area. The USS Charleston’s treasure estimated at $20 million is relatively small change. But what sinks the heart is the fact that, while other sunken treasure remain intact, the 19th century American battleship had long been blown up and looted and the Philippine government, which is entitled by law to get 75 percent of anything salvage in the waters got so much brine and sand. Has the office of the President got anything to say about this? Nothing, as far as we know. In fact several government offices have been implicated in the plunder, the National Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation, local government officials. The looters both foreign and local got away with the treasures with the blessings of government officials. There’s a free for all out there, and each one is helping himself to the loot. It seems that when it comes to money, the law of the sea always prevails.

HEAVE HO!

One of the saddest episodes revealed by the PCIJ report happened when local divers raided the USS Charleston and left nothing but debris. To recover some scrap brass they dynamited the wreck and spilled out thousands of gold and silver coins, gold bars and other items on the ocean floor. For P70 to P200, they are selling in Cagayan the gold coins which can fetch up to $6,000 a piece in the United States. The silver coins they sell for P12 a pound. Some 100,000 of these old Mexican coins have already been removed from the ship without penetrating the hull. Their joint estimated value abroad $10 million to $15 million. Now, you need only have a couple of buccaneers, through in a fistful of doubloons, roll out a barrel of rum and you have a great sea adventure. And there you have them. In fact, these people are now running after one another’s neck. Dennis Standefer, the American whose firm linked up with the Pacific SeaQuest and had been given permit to recover the treasures, is accusing his one-time partner of trying to kill him and his crew to get to the treasures first. The partner is a fortune hunter named Morgan. (Why did the BID allow a character with such a suspicious background to enter?) The most rib tickling part of this episode is that the legitimate prospector found himself in jail, while the shady character roamed the land buying coins from the locals. Will the BID and the NBI explain this part of the story? We wait with bated breath. Why does the Philippine government seem to have abandoned the treasure to the prospectors? Is it serious about getting its share? There’s big money out there- almost as big as the Marcos loot—if only the bureaucracy’s landlocked buccaneers won’t get there first and help themselves to it.

With that kind of money the Philippine Government can build thousands of additional classrooms, hire more teachers and get the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program going. And it would probably have enough left to start the modernization of the Navy.