MANILA, Philippines - Philippine troops have arrested a communist guerrilla leader and killed four rebels, the military said Tuesday.

Percival Manimog, one of the leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines in the south, did not resist arrest when soldiers surrounded his forest hideout on Mindanao island on Monday, a Philippine Army statement said.

Manimog, who supervised the Maoist group's armed wing, the 5,000-member New People's Army (NPA), is to stand trial for the 2004 murder of a village official in the area, it added.

The 41-year-old rebellion has claimed thousands of lives.

Meanwhile, four NPA gunmen were killed in a clash with a Philippine army patrol in the Bicol region southeast of Manila on Tuesday, it said in another statement.