UN truck helper delivering rice shot dead in Mindanao

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine National Police reported yesterday that an unidentified gunman shot dead a truck helper hired by the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) after the victim delivered rice and relief goods to several depressed areas in Lanao del Sur last Friday.

Senior Superintendent Cosanie Derogongan, Lanao del Sur police director, said the victim Sadam Basnillo, 25, is not a regular employee of the WFP. 

He said the WFP just hired Basnillo as helper and his father Gerome as driver of the truck to distribute relief goods in the province.

Police said the truck was rented by the WFP from owner Macarambon Calandada of Bliss Bubong, Saguiaran, Lanao del Sur.

The Basnillos were already on their way home when the lone suspect identified only as Pakpak attacked Sadam.

Derogongan said the WFP rented the truck with plate MVM-160 to deliver relief goods and the suspect fired at the victim while the truck was cruising on the national highway in Barangay Tuca Ilian, Maul, Marantao town.

A single bullet hit Sadam who died on the spot. Police said the firearm used was believed to be a .38 caliber revolver.

Police are still investigating the motive of the killing.

Derogongan blamed the WFP for not coordinating with the Lanao del Sur police force or with the military before conducting relief operations in the province.

Stephen Anderson of the WFP, said police were hunting the killer.

“Right now we are treating this as an isolated incident,” Anderson told AFP, commenting on other press reports that blamed the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) for the killing.

Anderson said it was too early to blame any group for the attack.

The 12,000-strong MILF has been waging a decades-long rebellion for the establishment of an independent Islamic state in the southern third of the mostly Catholic country.

Anderson said the victim was locally hired and not a full-time staffer in the WFP.

He said the attack looked unprovoked although the motive has yet to be established.

The killing underscores the dangers humanitarian workers face in the south, where the rebellion is complicated by a proliferation of unlicensed firearms and large clans fighting over political turf.

In December 2008, a Filipino aid worker was killed when unidentified gunmen attacked a WFP convoy in the south, just three months after another convoy was stopped and its food cargo seized.