That case raises nothing but skepticism and raised more questions then it answered.
The case was a Civil action brought in US courts against a deceased deposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos. A civil action like this does not require a unanimous decision of jury nor does it require you prove your case beyond a reasonable doubt. In this case, the Plantiffs burden of proof was only that the jury believed him more than they did a deceased thug dictator who fleeced his country. It was a slam dunk with what amounted to a default judgement.
Regarding the Alleged "Gold Budda" it was testified to by Jose Roxas, Rogelio's brother, as being lead or brass:
"At the initial hearing on the petition, conducted on April 28, 1995, Jose testified that he had been present when the raiding party confiscated the buddha. The court directed Jose to inspect the buddha in the clerk's possession and testify whether it was the same one taken from Rogelio Roxas. The *1226 court noted from its own observation that "t appears ... that the color is gold but it is superficial, it is only the outer part because there are parts where the color was chipoff [sic] and what you see is silver or white[.]" Jose identified the buddha as the statue confiscated from Roxas's house. At a second hearing, held on May 15, 1995, Jose testified that the buddha that had been in Roxas's house was "made of lead or copper but the reporters added that said Buddha was made of gold." He testified further that "[Roxas] also knew it was made of lead" but that Roxas had claimed that it was gold because he had been bribed by politicians to do so."
Also, the " $22 billion award" No sir, the estate of Marco's appealed and won, as the trial court erred in evaluating alleged treasure, not seized treasure, they valued the 17 bars seized and the budda statue and awarded around 13 million, but that too was an assumption the statue was gold, when witnesses to it said it was actually brass or lead and it wasn't present at trial for anyone to test or analyze.
In the end, it appears all they actually seized was 17 small gold bars and a brass statue. Witnesses did describe seeing vaults full of gold at various gov't controlled banks with one witness testifying that Ferdinand contacted him wanting to melt down gold bars to recast them with the cover story they were "Yamishita's Gold" hence making it appear legit, when in fact, in hindsight, it is now known the Ferdinand Marcos and his wife were embezzling all of the country's wealth and were likely trying to melt down the countries own gold reserves to recast it so as to not be traceable.