Manila - A leftist farming leader was killed Thursday in a southern Philippine city, bringing to 14 the number of extrajudicial killings in the country since the start of the year, a human rights advocate said.

Celso Pojas, 40, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen early Thursday while buying a cigarette at a store in Davao City,
990 kilometres south of Manila, said Jigs Clamor, deputy secretary general of the human rights group Karapatan.

Clamor said the victim died on the spot from gunshot wounds and his assailants escaped. Police were investigating and determining the motive behind the attack.

"There seems to be no let-up in the attack on activists," Clamor said. "All the pronouncements of the government about protecting human rights and stopping extrajudicial killings mean nothing. The killings continue."

A total of 70 people, mostly political activists, were killed last year. In 2006, 210 political killings were recorded in the Philippines.

Philip Alston, UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, conducted a fact-finding mission early last year on the political executions in the Philippines and criticized some state policies that tend to abet the attacks.

Alston noted that the military's counterinsurgency strategy was conducive to political killings.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo insisted that her government respects human rights and dissent and vowed to put an end to political killings. (dpa)