A lot of the issues in the Philippines are because Duterte hated the US, and cozied up to China.

Duterte flooded social media during the election and some of it was anti-US and pro-China. There were rumors that China funded part of his campaign in this area, but I saw no proof. But he gained control of social media and stayed there. I spent time arguing against the anti-US side. They had many expats scared that they would be deported if they made any comments during the election period.

Many articles on how Duterte's distrust of the US went back to an accidental explosion in a hotel that mangled a USian legs. While in the hospital (supposedly under guard) the US came in at night, flew him to Manila, then onto the US. The fellow's wife, a nurse, had flown out to get him and the embassy helped her. Duterte was livid, but his guards had screwed off and there were no orders in the hospital to keep him detained and the flight had been arranged by the US embassy. Duterte alluded to bombings done by rebels in the area, implying that man supplied the bombs, and declared the man CIA.

He was a treasure hunter and ran all over the island- sometimes diving into wrecks in the ocean or lakes, he and a friend went into caves the Japanese had occupied and blew open sections to see if the Japanese hid anything there. He got a pile of fake dollars made by the Japanese and used that to get into territory claimed by rebels. He made connections across Mindanao and had access, but there was no evidence of a big treasure trove find, just constantly searching. I think he did make it up into the gold mine areas too. He also went into some Moro Muslim areas where they are known to be fierce fighters, jurementado, and run amok. They'd get hopped up on opium, bind the body tight to inhibit blood flowing out and just attack rapidly slicing with a bolo knife. I saw a picture of one body that had been attacked this way and it was sliced open all over the body.

So this guy knew how to handle himself in dangerous areas, but there was ample evidence that he was what he said he was, a treasure hunter, and no evidence that he was CIA,just innuendo.