A journalist and radio show host who frequently criticised corruption was shot dead in the Philippines on Monday, local radio reported.

Aristeo Padrigao, who worked for a radio station in Gingoog City on the southern island of Mindanao, had just dropped his daughter at school when a gunman on a motorbike shot him in the face, Radio Nation reported.

It was the seventh killing of a media worker in the country this year.

The gunman, who was wearing a crash helmet, escaped on his bike after the attack and was being hunted by police, the radio said.

It said the motive for the attack was not immediately known.

Padrigao was the 54th journalist killed in the Philippines since President Gloria Arroyo came to power in 2001.

In August, a radio and newspaper journalist, Ronaldo Julia, was also shot several times in Camarines Sur province in the eastern Philippines.

The Manila-based Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility said that the Philippines has become the `most dangerous place for journalists next to Iraq.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists as well as the French group Reporters Without Borders have also both branded the Philippines as the second most dangerous place for working journalists outside of Iraq.

Three journalists were killed in the Philippines last year, while 12 were killed in 2006.