MANILA: A 72-year-old priest, described by his peers as a staunch human rights advocate, was killed by motorcycle-riding gunmen in Nueva Ecija province in Central Luzon, police confirmed on Tuesday.

Police said the Reverend Marcelito Paez was driving his vehicle on Monday night in the town of Jaen, Nueva Ecija when the gunmen who were apparently trailing him aboard a motorcycle fired at him at will after which they fled.

Police said bystanders who witnessed the shooting rushed Paez to the hospital where attending physicians declared him dead on arrival due to multiple bullet wounds.

Bishop Roberto Mallari of the San Jose diocese in Nueva Ecija where Paez served as a parish priest for 30 years before he retired in 2015 condemned the killing calling it “brutal and cowardly.”

Mallari said that although retired, Paez served as the coordinator of the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines in Central Luzon as well as involved in protecting the rights especially of the poor and farmers.

Mallari lamented the killing, saying Paez rose up to the challenge of the people “up to the point of offering one’s life,” as his colleagues recalled he was also active in the opposition against the construction of the controversial Bataan nuclear power plant during the Marcos dictatorship.

The $1 billion plant has since been mothballed with the ouster of the Marcos strongman rule in February 1986 following protests about its safety because it was located in an “earthquake zone.”

“This is also a challenge for us priests,” Mallari stressed, “to be ready to stand up for truth, justice and for the good of the people especially to those who have no voice.”

A group called the Promotion of Church People’s Response where Paez was also a member, issued a statement condemning the killing saying Paez “is publicly known as an advocate of human rights, peace and justice not only in the diocese but throughout the country.”

In Malacanang Palace, Harry Roque, the presidential spokesman, assured that the government would go after the identification and arrest of the Paez killers.

However, Roque pointed out that police have yet to determine whether the killing was “political” amid reports that before he was killed, Paez was actively involved in setting free by posting bail for a suspected militant arrested and detained at the Nueva Ecija provincial jail.