A police officer and a suspected communist militant were killed during a rebel attack on a police post in the southern Philippines, the military said Sunday. The attack occurred Saturday in a remote village in the Compostella valley, around 1,000 kilometres south of Manila on the island of Mindanao. The military Southern Command said police officer Vicente Vallejos was killed in the first volley of fire. Police returned fire, killing one of the attackers. In a separate operation Saturday, troops had arrested a senior communist rebel commander and his wife in the nearby city of Panabo also on Saturday. The Southern Command said Manuel Ramos, also known as Commander Pipoy, was one of the most wanted rebel leaders in the south and faces a string of criminal charges. Communist rebels in the southern Philippines have been fighting the government since the late 1960s in one of the longest-running leftist insurgencies in Asia. While the rebels and the government have been holding peace talks, sporadic fighting continues since the two sides have not agreed on a ceasefire during the negotiations. --SP 2309 Local Time 2009 GMT
