In a word yes! Many people believe in Yamashita's gold. Many Filipino's are also desperately poor and will grasp at straws trying to end their poverty. Also a fairly large number of the population here believe Yamashita's gold is why the Marcos were so wealthy. They believe Ferdinand Marcos found and absconded with this treasure. IMO this is untrue he just robbed the countries natural resources and ruthlessly controlled all economic sources under his dictatorship between himself and his cronies who still control the majority of wealth in this country to this day.