PHTAON 196O's Isang napakalaking ******* sa kasaysayan ng Pilipinas, na nag pa bago ng buhay ni Presidente Diosdado Macapagal Vs Ferdinan Marcos?
The Stonehill *******, named after American expatriate businessman Harry Stonehill, was a 1962 bribery ******* in the Philippines which implicated high level government officials, including President Diosdado Macapagal,future President Ferdinand Marcos,former President Carlos P. Garcia,and numerous other top Philippine officials, who were accused of accepting bribes to protect Stonehill's $50-million business empire.
Harry Stonehill was responsible for the industrialization of the Philippines after the 2nd world war with a business empire built around the production of low-cost housing & amenities for the poor, including glass, steel, cement & cotton.
He was the owner of 17 corporations and ******* turned out to be the most successful. As the first man to grow ******* in the Philippines he cut off the supply of US ******* to a poor country whose main agricultural product at the time was rice.
The US approached him in the early 1960s indicating that he would have to help them elect Ferdinand Marcos as president if he wished to continue doing business. He told them in no uncertain terms to 'GO TO HELL!' and this was the beginning of the end for him.
Marcos was selected by the US because he was more likely to bend to their wishes than the president at the time, Diosdado Macapagal who was firmly loyal to his country and to Stonehill.
The ******* erupted when Jose W. Diokno, who was serving as Justice Secretary under the Macapagal administration at the time, raided the offices of 42 of Stonehill's business establishments on March 2, 1962, and arrested Stonehill along with a number of his associates. The raid resulted in the confiscation of phone-tapping instruments, jamming devices, and other espionage equipment as well as six army trucks worth of documents. Stonehill was accused of tax evasion, economic sabotage, and various other charges, but among the documents was a letter from Stonehill addressed to Macapagal and a "blue book" which listed money given to various government officials, including Macapagal, Garcia, and Marcos.
Macapagal ordered Stonehill to be deported in August 1962, which sparked outrage and accusations of a coverup, notably from Diokno, whom Macapagal had prevented from pursuing the prosecution and then sacked from the cabinet. Diokno, in lamenting Macapagal's order to deport Stonehill, said, "How can the government now prosecute the corrupted when it has allowed the corrupter to go.
Mainhart Spielman: undercover CIA agent
A man of Jewish roots was employed by the US as a spy and sent to find suitable evidence with which they could blackmail Macapagal to ensure Harry's deportation. He didn't see what was happening at the time and feeling the Jewish connection, he gave Spielman a job in one of his many companies.
Upon discovering the required evidence, Spielman approached Stonehill with the truth, giving him an opportunity to buy his way out of the situation. And what he asked for was no small figure.
My father told me this part of the story very clearly and I do believe what happened next is a great reflection of who he really was. Consumed by rage he took Spielman to the top floor of one of his office buildings where he held him at the edge intending to kill him... but could not.
Instead, he refused to pay the enormous bribe and set him free. Ironically, once Spielman had delivered the evidence to the US, he was killed shortly afterward. Two local Philippine men were convicted of the crime but it was clear that Spielman was no longer needed and to safeguard their lie, the US had him murdered.
Known in the Philippines as 'the G.I. whose brass turned to gold', he defended them against the Japanese as a US soldier and stayed on for 20 years to become the most powerful man in the country, dedicated to improving the lives of millions of Filipinos, before suffering complete betrayal at the hands of the US government and was ultimately deported from his home, never permitted to return and chased around the world, prevented from establishing any further successful businesses until his death in 2002.
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Trivia! Stan and Harry were Army buddies. Stan actually had the opportunity to be Harry's partner. He talks about it in his autobiography Excelsior. Harry wanted him to go to the Philippines to sell Christmas cards. They kept in touch as Harry diversified and became fabulously wealthy. When Stan asked Harry what kind of car he was driving, Harry said that, through his dealerships, he owned half the cars in the Philippines.