A radio broadcaster was shot to death by two unidentified suspects in Misamis Occidental early Monday.

The victim, Ernie Rullen, was waiting for a bus along in Brgy. Talic along National Highway in Oroquieta City when two unidentified men riding a motorcycle shot him point-blank.

Rullen's common-law wife said that 'Ka Ernie' had parked his motorcycle at a gas station before commuting to work, when the two gunmen, who were wearing bonnets, shot him.

The suspects quickly fled the scene.

Rullen, described by colleagues as a hard-hitting commentator, had been consistently receiving death threats throughout his 13-year-long career, because of the sensitive issues he tackled on his morning talk show on Radio DXSY.

Police, meanwhile, said that they are considering several motives to the killing including politics, a love triangle, and a land dispute.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), a guild committed to protecting the interests of media practitioners, condemned this latest attack on the press.

According to statistics by the Committee to Protect Journalists, an international non-government organization, 34 journalists in the Philippines have been killed in direct relation to their work since 1992.

NUJP statistics showed that 63 Filipino journalists have been killed since 2001. -- report from TRINI VELASCO, ABS-CBN News Cagayan de Oro