There is sunken treasure in Corregidor

In 1942, about 16 million pieces of silver Philippine coins were dumped near Corregidor. Some of it remains unretrieved.

After the Fall of Manila in 1942, Filipino and American officials were thinking of ways to keep the Philippine National Treasury out of the enemy’s hands.

At that time, the treasury was brimming with 70 million pesos in paper bills, 269 pieces of gold bars, and more than 16 million pesos in silver coins.

They were running out of time so they had to move fast. A total of 20 million in 500-peso bills was burned from January 19 to 20, 1942. When the submarine USS Trout arrived in Corregidor in February 3, workers loaded it with 2 million dollars in gold bars and $360, 000 in silver which were eventually shipped to San Francisco.

With no more time left, they decided to just dump the remaining silver coins to Caballo Bay, a deep and rough location just off Corregidor Island.

The Japanese learned about the sunken treasure right after the fall of Corregidor. They forced Filipino divers to retrieve the boxes of silver coins. In the end, they only recovered 100, 000 pesos.

But the Japanese wouldn’t settle for less, so they handpicked more experienced divers from a group of American prisoners. The American divers were able to retrieve 150, 000 pesos more. It was a very dangerous work and they thought of outsmarting the Japanese. They were able to steal some 60,000 pesos without the Japanese knowing it. Their Filipino friends were able to find Chinese money-changers in Manila to exchange Japanese paper currency for Philippine silver coins.

Eventually, the recovery program was cancelled, much to the joy of American prisoners. In 1945, the U.S. Navy was able to salvage 5,380,000 pesos which they turned over to the Philippine government.

Although some of the sunken treasure has already been recovered, no one knows exactly how much of it still remains at the bottom of the shark-infested ocean or if they can still be retrieved in the first place.