Cotabato City, Philippines  - A broadcast journalist was killed by unidentified gunmen in a southern Philippine city, a police official said Thursday.

Badrodin Abas, 38, was shot in the head by two motorcycle-riding gunmen late Wednesday in Cotabato City, 930 kilometres south of Manila, according to the city's police chief, Senior Superintendent Willie Dangane.

Dangane said the victim, a broadcaster for a radio station in Cotabato, was riding in his van when the suspects blocked it and shot him in the head.

Cotabato City, Philippines  - Philippine police on Wednesday defused two homemade bombs found inside a passenger bus in the country's troubled south, officials said.

The bombs, made from 81-millimetre and 60-millimetre mortar shells, were hidden in abandoned baggage inside the bus in Isulan town, Sultan Kudarat province, 930 kilometres south of Mnaila.

Police Superintendent Suharto Teng Tucao said bomb experts removed the explosives from bus and safely defused them.

"Passengers immediately got off the bus after they discovered the baggage containing explosives," he said. "We are thankful the explosives were recovered before they exploded."

Cotabato City, Philippines - Thirteen Muslim separatist rebels and one soldier were killed in a firefight in the southern Philippines on Tuesday, the military said.

Eight soldiers were also wounded in the clash in Datu Saudi Ampatuan town in Maguindanao province, 930 kilometres south of Manila, brigade commander Colonel Marlou Salazar said.

The four-hour fight began when Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels opened fire at the soldiers who were sent to verify reports of gunmen harassing residents in the town, he said.

Cotabato City, Philippines  - Police on Saturday foiled a bombing in the southern Philippines with the discovery of an improvised explosive outside a church, a town police chief said.

Chief Inspector Franklin Anito said the improvised bomb was recovered at dawn in front of a local Christian church in Kabacan town in North Cotabato province, 960 kilometres south of Manila.

Passers-by alerted the police about a suspicious plastic bag left outside the Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ) church in downtown Kabacan, Anito said.

"Bomb experts immediately went to the area and discovered the explosive device," he said. "The device was successfully defused."

Cotabato City, Philippines  - One soldier was killed Wednesday and three were wounded in clashes with Muslim secessionist rebels in the southern Philippines, a regional military spokesman said.

One soldier was killed and one was wounded when patrolling troops encountered Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels in Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Maguindanao province, 930 kilometres south of Manila, Major Randolph Cabangbang said.

Cabangbang said fighting between MILF rebels and government troops also erupted Wednesday in the nearby town of Guindulungan, resulting in the wounding of two soldiers.

The military dispatched more troops to the areas of the fighting to pursue the rebels, he added.