Manila: Authorities in the southern Philippines are looking for leads that could help solve Sunday’s killing of a broadcast executive in Tawi-Tawi.

“We are at a loss over possible suspects in the shooting of Richard Najid,” the head of police in Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), Chief Supt. Noel delos Reyes, was quoted by reports as saying.

Delos Reyes said the slain radio station executive had no known enemies and was amiable to everybody. Najid’s programme mainly played music and was not engaged in commentaries.

The 35-year-old Najid, who worked as manager of the local, Bongao, Tawi-Tawi-based FM radio station dxNN, was shot at around 7pm Sunday in the village of Tubig Boh after playing a game of basketball.

He was buried on Monday.

Prior to working for dxNN, Najid was a reporter for the Jolo, Sulu-based AM radio station, dxGD.

He was the second journalist in Tawi-Tawi to be killed in recent years after Vicente Sumalpong was assassinated in 2007.

Sumalpong, who was also based in Bongao, worked for the government-run dzRB.

According to Presidential Communications and Operations Office Secretary Hermino Coloma, President Benigno Aquino III has ordered the Philippines National Police to investigate the incident and apprehend those responsible for the killing.

Reports said two suspects riding pillion on a motorcycle had shot Najid from behind.

Najid’s shooting came less than a month after a Metro Manila-based female tabloid reporter was shot and killed by two assailants.

Rubylita Garcia, 52, was shot by two assailants immediately after she arrived home from work in Bacoor City, south of Manila in Cavite province last April.

Garcia worked for the hard hitting tabloid Remate and was a “blocktime” host for a radio programme at the station, dwAD.

The New York-based Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) pointed out that in the case of Garcia, her murder could be “work-related.”

“Garcia was known as a hard-hitting journalist who had exposed wrongdoing in the Cavite police force,” the CPJ said as it called on authorities to conduct a “thorough and efficient investigation” into her murder.

At least 74 journalists have been murdered in the Philippines since CPJ began keeping records in 1992.