Body found in ravine believed to be of missing Japanese

GENERAL SANTOS CITY — The police have reportedly found in Davao del Sur the body of a Japanese businessman who went missing while he was visiting this city last Dec. 11.

But a Japanese consul in Davao City has yet to confirm if the remains found in a ravine in Sitio Tawal, Barangay Tagansuli in Malalag, Davao del Sur were that of 25-year-old Yasauki Sawada.

"Although he looks like a Japanese, we have to refer it first to the Japanese Embassy in Manila," Consul Mizayama told Super Radyo.

The victim’s throat was slashed and a steel cord was tied around his neck.

Sawada, a resident of Sennansi, Osaka, Japan, was last seen on the night of Dec. 11 coming out of the East Asia Royal Hotel together with another Japanese, identified as Satoshi Ueda, also of Osaka.

Sources said Sawada, along with some compatriots, were allegedly engaged in buying gold bars from certain people in Davao del Sur.

Senior Superintendent Alfredo Toroctocon, city police chief, said the body could be Sawada’s based on the description provided by taxi driver Mario Bongay, whom the foreigner hired on the morning of Dec. 11.

Bongay told the police that he fetched Sawada from the hotel to buy some car accessories. He said they also went to a dollar exchange outlet.

According to Bongay, Sawada was wearing shorts and white Lee T-shirt in which the body found in Malalag town was clad.

The taxi driver said he firmly believes that it was really Sawada who was found dead because of his teeth and hair.

Based on Bongay’s statement, Toroctocon ruled out kidnapping in Sawada’s disappearance, saying probers were looking into a possible rift with his business partners.

Toroctocon said investigation showed that Sawada and Ueda, along with two other Japanese — Kenji Ida and Minore Tsunoto — stayed in the East Asia Royal Hotel last Dec. 7. However, Ida and Tsunoto checked out on Dec. 10.

Hotel guards recalled that at dawn of Dec. 12, only Ueda returned to the hotel. The following day, Ueda left for Manila and informed the hotel’s front desk that Sawada had failed to come back along with him the night before. — With Ramil Bajo