The popular radio commentator and an outspoken critic of corruption and rising crime in a southern Philippine city of Lligan, was killed by a gunman, according to media reports citing police sources.

The presenter at DXLS Love Radio was shot dead late in the evening as he left a friend’s house, the Iligan City police chief Crestito Rey Gonzalodo said. He died on the way to hospital and his killer escaped on a waiting motorcycle driven by an accomplice.

The police chief described Solijon as a "fearless radio commentator" and said the motive for the attack may have been political but the victim’s widow was quoted as saying that her husband had received telephone and text messages threats.

The National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP), an IFJ affiliate, said Solijon had criticised local politicians on his show and accused a village chief of drugs trading.

The NUJP said that, if work related, Solijon’s killing would take to 159 the number of journalists killed in the Philippines since the fall of dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, adding that most cases of journalists’ murders inthe Philippines remain unresolved.

Source: AP/Nation