A prominent Philippine journalist was shot dead while driving in the country's capital, Manila, according to police, prompting condemnation from media groups and activists who described his assassination as a blow to press freedom.
Radio journalist Percival Mabasa, 63, was killed on Monday night by two assassins at the gate of a residential compound in the Las Pinas area of Manila, police said. He was shot twice in the head.
The attackers fled and an investigation was under way to locate and identify them, police officials said. They said investigators were trying to determine the motive behind the attack.
The incident that took place in Metro Manila shows how brazen the perpetrators were, and how authorities have failed to protect journalists as well as ordinary citizens from harm, said the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines.
The national police pledged to deliver justice in the case.
Mabasa, who used the broadcast name Percy Lapid, was critical of the previous president Rodrigo Duterte, who oversaw a deadly crackdown on illegal drugs, and his successor, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, son of an ousted dictator.
The office of Marcos was concerned about the killing and officials had been tasked with looking at the conduct of the investigation, said senior deputy executive secretary Hubert Guevara.
The shooting followed the fatal stabbing of radio journalist Rey Blanco in central Philippines in September.
The Philippines has one of Asia's most liberal media environments, but it remains one of the world s most dangerous places for journalists, particularly in its provinces.
According to International Watchdog Reporters Without Borders, at least 187 journalists have been killed in the Philippines over the past 35 years, including 32 killed in a single incident in 2009, according to international watchdog Reporters Without Borders.
Mabasa's family called his killing a deplorable crime and demanded his cowardly assassins be brought to justice Amnesty International said the attack bears all the hallmarks of an extrajudicial execution and an attempt to silence voices critical of the government Rights group Karapatan described him as one of the country's fiercest truth-tellers, local police chief Jaime Santos said in a statement.
The killing was presumed to be work related, according to the presidential office on media security.