American trader killed in Southern Philippines

American Jeff Michael Keith is killed in Pikit town in North Cotabato province in the restive region of southern Philippines. (Mindanao Examiner. Photo courtesy of Nhor Gayak.)

 

KIDAPAWAN CITY – An American businessman was killed in an attack by gunmen in the restive southern region of the Philippines, media reports said Monday.

It said the 60-year old Jeff Michael Keith was in his truck parked in downtown Pikit in North Cotabato together with his Filipina wife and two children when one of two gunmen walked alongside the vehicle and without a warning shot the foreigner.

The assailants also took Keith’s bag containing some P200,000 and escaped on a motorcycle leaving the woman and the children unharmed. The motive of the weekend killing is still unknown, but police launched an investigation into the murder and that a tracker team was dispatched to find the perpetrators.

Keith, a long-time resident of Cagayan de Oro City, was a regular traveller to North Cotabato because of his business, according to the police, but it gave no details of the man’s business. No individual or group claimed responsibility for the attack; however, police were investigating whether the robbery was the motive of the killing, or if rebels were involved in the murder.

The province is a known lair of Moro and communist rebel groups. There was no immediate statement from the US Embassy, but Washington has repeatedly warned its citizens to stay from the troubled region because of threats of terrorism. (Rhoderick Beñez)

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