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Another senior communist rebel held in Philippines

Communist rebels stand in formation during the 42nd anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of the Philippines on the southern island of Mindanao on December 26, 2010

The Philippine military said Sunday it had detained a senior communist rebel leader, the latest in a series of arrests or killings which have damaged one of the world's longest-running insurgencies. Military agents and police arrested Maria Concepcion Araneta-Bocala, a central committee member of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), at a home in Iloilo City on the central island of Panay on Saturday, military spokesmen said. They seized two pistols and a hand grenade. A military statement identified Bocala as the secretary in charge of communist rebel forces in Panay, a largely rural island with a population of over four million. "Her arrest will (cause) another vacuum in the leadership of the CPP-NPA organisation that has been rocked by successive arrests and neutralisation efforts," said military spokesman Colonel Noel Detoyato in a statement He credited "months of intelligence work" for the capture, adding that Bocala would face charges of murder and rebellion. The suspect reportedly had a bounty of 7.8 million pesos ($173,400) on her head. The CPP and its 4,000-strong armed wing, the NPA or New People's Army, has for 46 years waged a Maoist guerrilla campaign which has claimed tens of thousands of lives, largely in rural areas mired in poverty. A leading NPA commander Leonardo Pitao was killed in a mountainous hamlet near the major southern city of Davao in June. Earlier that month Adelberto Silva, described by the military as the "highest-ranking" CPP-NPA leader, was captured. Last year CPP chairman Benito Tiamzon and his wife Wilma Tiamzon, the party's secretary-general, were arrested.