Operation Teardrop - Part II

In my previous posting, I related the contents of a mysterious letter I received ...

It was regarding an alleged undercover scheme by former Philippines president, Ferdinand Marcos, who --- once he realized he was going to be ousted from power --- made plans to hide a huge quantity of gold from other governments. This was allegedly part of the legendary hoard orignally stashed by the Japanese Imperial Army's General Yamashita at the end of World War II.

Here is the rest of the story. Again, I have edited its contents for the purposes of intelligibility:

Operation Teardrop (continued)

"Once it got dark, the soldiers began loading the ship. The trucks where going back and forth from the bank. All this happened only at night when very few people were around the base. It took us around three nights to load all the metal. Each bar weighted around 12.5 kilograms. On the fourth night, we loaded waterproofing paint, around 50 1-gallon cans and 24 paintbrushes. This paint was used to preserve wood or metal from corrosion.

"At 1100 hours, we went to sea Mr. Rosales and Dr. Consing at the cabin. I decided to go to the cabin early. They didn't see me yet, and I overheard that they switched coordinates on me. They wanted to come back for the gold themselves at a shallow part of the Philippine waters.

"My orders were for complete radio silence. I went back to the bridge and pulled out the chart and looked for a deep part of the Philippine water where I could drop this metal and tell President Marcos and General Ver when we got back where it was and what these two people had done.

"Mr. Rosales went out of the cabin and told me to have the sailors start painting the metal with the waterproof paint. I gave the orders to several of my men to start and to take shifts at this work. On the way back to the bridge, I stopped by my cabin. I got a compass and my transistor radio. I took out the speaker of the radio, knowing it contained a magnet. I put a small compass in one pocket and the speaker in the other pocket. Most of the time, Mr. Rosales and Dr. Consing remained in the cabin, either sleeping or playing cards. When I rested, it was only four hours at a time. These two individuals stayed in their cabin and sometimes just looked at the sailors painting the metal. They never went up to the bridge at all.

"We had been sailing for about 12 hours (estimated time), which was what it was supposed to take to get to the drop-off point for the metal. Unknown to them, I had been zigzagging and traveling at 75% speed. Instead of getting to the shallow, we got to where I wanted: the deep-end. We dropped anchor and began unloading. It took us four days around clock to do so, including the waterproofing of the rest of the metal. The crew was listening to the radio news when we heard the Ramos and Enrile rebellion was taking place.

"By the time we got back to port at Navy Headquarters, it was all over for President Marcos. He had departed the country already. Mr. Rosales and Dr. Consing handed each sailor Php 100,000.00 and one 12.5-kilogram bar of gold. Then they gave me Php 500,000.00 and two 12.5-kilogram bars of gold. As I exited, I heard Dr. Consing say "Well, Ed, looks like we have to split the other 10 bars of gold and the rest of the 5 million pesos." Then the both laughed aloud.

"Six months passed. I have kept a low profile. I did not sell any of the metal or bought anything expensive. I do not dare try to contact President Marcos or General Ver in fear of the current state and the ways of President Aquino and the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States. An aide of Mrs. Aquino, who happens to be a very good friend told me that they killed all military personnel that was involved in the operation. These orders were given to a group of people in the Philippine Intelligence Unit and the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States of America. I immediately got out of the Philippines that same evening.

"Since then, I have been living outside of the Philippines in fear of my life. I am the only one who knows the coordinates where the metal is located. All the sailors under my command are now dead."

This isn't the first time I had heard that a large quantity of gold was spirited out of the Philippines by President Marcos and hidden in the sea. A very good friend of mine was a confidante of a former Miss Philippines who became the trophy wife of a rich but irascible New Yorker. Ultimately, he was so irascible that his cook walked into the den one day and blew the guy's brains to kingdom come. That left the former Miss Philippines a very rich widow.

She was a close friend of Imelda Marcos, and one day, confided to my friend that the Marcos' had taken their remaining gold in the Philippines and 'buried' it at sea.

I mention this point because its frame of reference was nothing close to a set-up to request money for a 'hidden secret' that could yield quick riches. In fact, the letter was given to me under similar circumstances. It was shared as a matter of interest as opposed to an invitation to get involved in treasure hunting. The gentleman who gave it to me knew I had more sense than to make such an independent attempt, given its sensitive nature.

I obviously looked for flaws in the letter, and the most prominent was the painting of the bars to 'waterproof' them. Gold doesn't need to be waterproofed. However, given the broken English in the original document, it may have been the author was trying to say that waterproof paint was applied in order to better hide the gold.

It's an investigation I'll pursue when I'm in that region again.