Manila: A reporter, slain on Saturday evening in Digos City, had long been receiving death threats and authorities are looking at the possibility that his murder was connected with his job as a propagandist for a local politician.

Nestor Bedolido, who was in his 40s and wrote for the weekly Kastigador (Castigator), was slain by a gunman while buying cigarettes at the corner of Rizal and Quezon Avenues in the Southern Philippines' city, reports said.

Bedolido sustained six gunshot wounds. He was shot by a man who fled the scene on a motorcycle driven by another suspect.

The killing was the third in a week and the latest that took place less a little over a month since the Philippines' held its general elections.

A report by Bombo Radyo Davao, said relatives of Bedolido believe that provincial politics figure prominently in the killing of the writer.

The victim was reported to be a supporter of a certain politician in Digos City and had served as a propagandist for former Davao del Sur Representative Claude Bautista when the latter ran for the post of governor.

Bedolido was killed even as international journalist groups aired concerns over the rash of killings of media workers. The Philippines is considered one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists.

On June 15, Joselito Agustin, 37, a commentator for dzJC Aksyon Radyo-Laoag in northern Philippines, was shot and killed on his way home to Bacarra town, Ilocos Norte. The murder came about 24 hours after the killing of broadcaster Desidario "Jessie" Camangyan, anchorman of Sunrise FM, in Mati, Davao Oriental, Southern Philippines. He was shot while hosting a singing contest in Manay.

Jacqueline Park, Asia-Pacific Director of the International Federation of Journalists, called on the incoming government of President Benigno Aquino III, to show that something can be done stop the "culture of impunity" that pervades whenever a media worker is killed.

"These killings, barely half a month before president-elect Noynoy Aquino takes office, show that enemies of press freedom in the Philippines are confident they can continue to get away with murder," IFJ said then.

Bedolido's killing is the 140th killing of a media worker in the Philippines since 1986.