American wanted for molesting kid nabbed in ’Gapo

A 63-year-old American wanted by authorities in California on charges of child molestation has been arrested in Olongapo City, where he had been hiding for the past five years, immigration officials said yesterday.

Melvin Edward McGowan, convicted in a California court in 1995 for sexually molesting a child, was arrested last Nov. 24 in Olongapo, said Faizal Hussin, the immigration bureau’s intelligence chief.

After his arrest, McGowan suffered a heart attack and was treated in a hospital near Manila, but was later transferred to the bureau’s detention center, Hussin said.

After his conviction in 1995, McGowan violated his parole and was returned to jail in California in March 2000. But he was mistakenly released the following month and fled to the Philippines.

Authorities found him living with his Filipino wife in Antique, leading to his first arrest in 2001 in a hospital in nearby Iloilo City.

But shortly after he was turned over to the immigration bureau in 2001, he disappeared again while on a medical pass to undergo angioplasty, Hussin said.

McGowan’s records did not indicate his hometown, but showed at least two warrants issued for his arrest — in San Diego for child molestation and in San Francisco for parole violation.

Immigration Commissioner Alipio Fernandez said he will be deported to the US and banned from re-entering the Philippines. — AP, Edu Punay