Manila - A Filipino broadcast journalist was killed Monday in the southern Philippines in the sixth deadly attack against the media in the country this year, police said.

Aresio Padrigao, a commentator for local radio station DXRS, was shot to death by gunmen aboard a motorcycle in Gingoog town in Misamis Oriental province, 795 kilometres south of Manila.

Padrigao, a known critic of local government officials in Misamis Oriental, had just brought his child to school when the assailants attacked him.

Misamis Oriental provincial police chief Senior Superintendent Catalino Rodriguez said the victim died on the spot and the suspects escaped.

Rodriguez said police investigators were still determining the motive behind the attack.

Padrigao was the sixth journalist to be killed this year. Last year, four journalists were killed, while 13 were killed in 2006. Most of the killings remain unresolved. (dpa)