A Catholic priest has been abducted and killed by gunmen in the southern Philippines province of Tabawan.
Witnesses said that a group of masked men seized Father Reynaldo Roda from the Notre Dame High School in Tabawan on Tawi-Tawi island.
Police are searching for a teacher who was abducted with the priest.
The local Catholic Bishops' Conference said Father Roda had been receiving death threats from militant Islamist group Abu Sayyaf.
A fellow missionary on Tawi-Tawi, Father Rito Daquitil told the conference Father Roda had been a vocal opponent of terrorism and corruption.
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Peres starts historic Turkey trip ... But he said it was up to the authorities to determine who was responsible for the killing.
Police chief Wyneright Taup told Reuters that Father Roda said he would never be taken alive by militants.
"He has been receiving kidnapping threats from the Abu Sayyaf, but he has refused our offers to provide him with police guards," he said.
Tawi-Tawi, a mostly Muslim island province, has been largely spared the violence that has engulfed neighbouring Jolo and Basilan islands - strongholds of the Abu Sayyaf.
Priests and missionaries have often been targeted by Islamist militants in the country's south.
Abu Sayyaf, one of the smallest but most notorious groups, wants to create an Islamic state in the south of the Philippines and has been behind a series of kidnappings of Westerners and locals.
(BBC)
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