SKELETONS FOUND IN UNDERGROUND TUNNEL
By Cloe Diaz, staff writer Mindanao Free Press.
June 24, 2001

          Yamashita Treasures  hunter shockingly discovered what appear to be 30 skeletons of Japanese soldiers from WWII in a section of tunnel some 125 feet underground in an excavation in the outskirts of Tugbok district, located in the southern part of Davao.

           Mario (his last name withheld upon his request) found the skeletons after digging through a section of tunnel that was filled with rubble.  It had apparently been blown shut by the Japanese in order to seal it.  Once he had cleared way the rubble he followed the tunnel about 10 meters were he descended a cemented stairway (stair way) to a large room.  He was shocked to find human skeletons sprawled all over the tunnel.  There were rusty helmets, rifles, bayonets and tattered uniforms to prove that these skeletons were those of Japanese soldiers who were entombed alive.  Just beyond this room,  the tunnel runs for about 30 meters northeast where is again blocked by another rubble heap.

         Mario, who has been a treasure hunter for 15 years, said that he had never seen anything like this before.  The tunnel was under the 5-hectare excavation site he and his team has been working on for almost 5-years.  It was said that the site is one of the main burial grounds of the Japanese soldiers of their looted items during WWII.  He and his team were able to successfully recover a few small caches of gold and jewelries during the first few months of excavation but Mario claims that they were just decoy deposits, meaning they were placed in shallow tunnels or holes to divert one’s (ones)  attention away from the main cache or the larger amount of treasure.  Thus they decided to dig further.  That was when they discovered more markers that eventually led them laterally through a labyrinth of tunnels, bypassing booby traps, then down through a series of rooms. They have dug down to 225 feet from the surface where they continue to dig in a
 large water filled room.  Mario said that he had one team of workers back up at the 125 level working on a small side tunnel when they (thy) discovered the skeletons.


           Furthermore, Mario believes that he is very close to a large cache of buried gold.   Now that there were skeletons discovered in the area, it made him even more certain that the treasure that he had been looking for is now within his reach as these skeletons are a marker in themselves.


Word spread fast about the many skeletons and soon the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Region XI arrived to investigate (investigating.)  A team of forensic experts from Manila arrived and gathered up all the skeletons for evaluation.  Their preliminary investigation did confirm that these skeletons were Japanese from the war.  Once they render their final report, the bones will be given to the Japanese embassy that has already been notified.

After being halted for almost 60 days while the NBI conducted an investigation, Mario is once again removing rubble from the tunnel, one wheelbarrow, one basket at a time.  Knowing that just around the next bend of tunnel or behind the next rubble pile he will find a large cache of gold!