ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / May 10, 2008) – Philippine police have tracked down a British national who was reported missing in the southern port city of Zamboanga, officials said Saturday.
Police mounted a search Friday for James David Rowe after failing to return to his hotel. “He was tracked down in San Carlos City in Negros Occidental province,” said Senior Superintendent Laurimer Detran, chief of the Zamboanga City police force.
Negros province is near Cebu in central Philippines.
Local radio reports said Rowe went missing Thursday after he left the Amil Hotel with a Filipino man. A hotel clerk said they reported to the police that Rowe was missing, although his things are still in the room.
Detran said the foreigner fled to evade his Chinese business partner named Fong who was expecting the delivery of motorboat engines in Zamboanga City.
The engines, he said, were to be shipped to their owners in Tawi-Tawi province.
“From the reports we received, James Rowe owes his partner some four hundred thousand pesos and that he fled to San Carlos City where he has a Filipino girlfriend.”
“Our counterparts have made contact with Rowe, but police has nothing with him unless his partner, Mr. Fong, filed charges against the Briton to recover his money,” Detran told the Mindanao Examiner.
Police said it was Rowe’s partner who reported that he went missing after the foreigner failed to deliver the cargo. No other details were available about Rowe.
Mayor Celso Lobregat has ordered the police to search for Rowe after hearing radio reports. His spokesperson, Sheila Covarrubias, said Rowe is engage in buying and selling of automotive spare parts and authorities were investigating whether his business has anything to do with his disappearance.
The United States and Australia last month warned their citizens not to travel to Zamboanga City because extremists could be planning to kidnap Americans or other foreigners at hotels or other public places in Zamboanga City.
Zamboanga had been targeted in the past by Abu Sayyaf militants whose group is tied to al-Qaeda terror network.Two homemade bombs exploded in Zamboanga City a week after the US and Australian issued the warnings. (Mindanao Examiner)
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