Rogelio Roxas

Rogelio "Roger" Domingo Roxas (died May 25, 1993) was a former Filipino soldier who had worked as a locksmith before allegedly discovering in a cave north of Manila a hidden chamber full of gold bars and a giant golden Buddha statue – which Roxas estimated to weigh one metric ton – on a plot of state-owned land near Baguio General Hospital, in Baguio on January 24, 1971.

[1] Roxas claimed that the Buddha's head was removable and that it concealed a hollowed-out portion within the statue that contained at least two handfuls of uncut diamonds.

Inside the tunnels, the group found wiring, radios, bayonets, rifles, and a human skeleton wearing a Japanese army uniform.

The statue was extremely heavy; it required ten men to transport it to the surface using a chain block hoist, ropes and rolling logs.

Roxas also found a large pile of boxes underneath the concrete enclosure, approximately fifty feet from where the buddha statue had been discovered.

Several weeks later, Roxas returned to blast the tunnel closed, planning to sell the buddha statue in order to obtain funds for an operation to remove the remaining treasure.

Roxas testified that Kenneth Cheatham, the representative of one prospective buyer, drilled a small hole under the arm of the buddha and assayed the metal.

Roxas also testified that a second prospective buyer, Luis Mendoza, also tested the metal of the statue using nitric acid and concluded that it was "more than 20 carats."

A justice department statistical bulletin on civil verdicts claims that the court found insufficient evidence that Roxas had actually discovered the gold bullion while treasure hunting north of Manila in 1971.

"[12] Judge Antonio Reyes of the Baguio Regional Trial Court had declared in a ruling on May 30, 1996, that the golden Buddha was only a bronze-plated statuette.

In 1995, Roxas's eldest son Jose petitioned the court to release the statuette to him as a memento of his father's treasure hunting days.