Free Republic

Gunshots have been heard in the Philippine Senate building, Senate authorities said on Wednesday, where a senator wanted by the International Criminal Court has been holed up to resist arrest. [SNIP] Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos insisted the incident was not carried out by government personnel, but rather an apparent shootout between an unidentified armed group and Senate security personnel. Marcos said no government forces attempted to enter the Senate to arrest Senator Ronald Dela Rosa, a longtime ally of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who evaded arrest by local investigative unit officers earlier this week. Senator Dela Rosa was filmed...

A missing Pablo Picasso painting was spotted at the home of the Philippines’ controversial former first lady — as she celebrated her son’s presidential victory, according to a former official familiar with the artwork. Imelda Marcos — the widow of late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos — was filmed hugging her son, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., in footage that aired this week with the apparent long-lost masterpiece “Reclining Woman VI” hanging on a wall behind them. The bombshell in the background was broadcast in a news segment by the local station TV Patrol Tuesday after Marcos Jr. became the country’s next...

Who has Yamashita’s gold? By Rony V. Diaz A PAGE-TURNER of a book came out in September this year. It’s called Gold Warriors: America’s Secret Recovery of Yamashita’s Gold by Sterling and Peggy Seagrave. The subtitle says it all. The US government got most of the gold that the Japanese Army looted in the countries it occupied. Some of the treasure trove, however, has not been found and the Seagraves believe it is in the Philippines. The story begins with General Douglas MacArthur. At war’s end he reported finding “great hoards of gold, silver, precious stones, foreign postage stamps, engraving...