MANILA, Philippines — From overflowing beer to horses, gamecocks and pythons to decked out detention cells to recording studios and now, the mythical Yamashita’s treasure — the New Bilibid Prison has got it all for you.
That is, if suspended Bureau of Corrections chief Gerald Bantag is to be believed, who supposedly told Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla that the unauthorized excavation inside the national penitentiary was to look for the alleged war loot named after Japanese general Tomoyuki Yamashita.
“That was supposed to be a treasure hunt for Yamashita treasure originally. I was told by Director General Bantag about it and I told him to stop,” Remulla told reporters Friday in a chance interview.
The justice chief said he found this to be “ridiculous” and a “waste of government time and money.”
“You’re not there to dig for treasure. You’re there to run the corrections department,” he said.
Philstar.com has reached out to Bantag for comment and confirmation as to whether he does believe that Bilibid could be the site where the Imperial Japanese forces buried war loot during World War II, which has long been dismissed by most historians.
ABS-CBN News first reported about the discovery of a 200-meter wide and 30-meter deep hole and tunnel inside Bilibid.
Bantag later admitted in an interview with News5 that he ordered the excavation in the national penitentiary to build a “deep swimming pool” because he is a “master scuba diver.”
In a separate interview with DZBB, Bantag said the excavation was part of a development through a joint venture with Agua Tierra Mina Oro Development Corp. — a deal which former Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra and acting BuCor chief Gregorio Catapang Jr. said they are clueless about.
But Remulla said the deal is invalid from the start as it did not have the approval of Guevarra, who was justice secretary at the time when the joint venture was first proposed in 2020, and then-President Rodrigo Duterte.
Bantag is facing murder complaints over the deaths of Percy Lapid and Jun Villamor, the alleged middleman in the broadcaster’s killing. — Xave Gregorio with a report from Kristine Joy Patag