Richard Nadjid, acting manager of DXNN PowerMix FM in Bongao, southern Philippines was gunned down on Sunday night, according to local media.

Police say Najib was returning from a basketball game when three men accosted him and shot him dead, a day after World Press Freedom Day.

The National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP) says he is the 27th journalist to be killed since the country’s President Aquino took office in 2010.

A presidential spokesman told Australia Network: “We are ordering the Philippine National Police to track down, arrest and charge those behind these crimes.”

“We are still trying to look deeper into the attack but a personal grudge is a possible angle,” said the area’s police chief.

According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, since 1992, 76 journalists have been murdered in the Philippines, which is placed third in its “impunity index”, showing the most dangerous places for journalists.