A Philippine news reporter has died after being shot multiple times in his home, police said Sunday, becoming the latest in a long line of journalists slain in the country.

The archipelago nation is one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists, and most of their killers go unpunished.

Orlando Dinoy, a reporter for online outfit Newsline Philippines and anchor for Energy FM, was shot six times by a gunman who barged into his apartment in Bansalan town, Mindanao island, local police chief Major Peter Glenn Ipong said. Dinoy died immediately, he added.

Officers were still investigating possible motives, the force added.

"One of the angles we are looking at is his work as a media man... but no one can give us a concrete lead so far," Ipong told AFP.

Dinoy was the 21st journalist killed since President Rodrigo Duterte took power in 2016, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said.

National police chief General Guillermo Eleazar ordered a thorough investigation into the case, and vowed to protect the media from attacks.

In a report this month, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists listed the Philippines at seventh place in its Global Impunity Index, with 13 murders of journalists still unsolved.

The nation has been a mainstay in the annual index since it started in 2008.