After years of eating measly meals and living in the mountains, a communist rebel will now live the luxurious life of a millionaire for tipping off a New People's Army (NPA) leader's hideout to the military.

Lt. Gen. Pedro Ike Insierto, chief of the Armed Forces' Central Command, on Wednesday handed P5-million reward to a military informant for helping his unit arrest NPA leader Randall Echaniz alias Chito Santiago.

Insierto awarded the money to the masked informant, a former NPA rebel who surrendered to the military last year, at the Central Command's headquarters in Cebu City.

The military official said the unidentified rebel had been under the Witness Protection Program (WPP) since his surrender. He said that aside from the big amount of cash, the tipster will also be living a "protected" life.

"He will definitely be well guarded. He helped us a lot," Insierto said, adding that the tipster will remain under the government's WPP.

Insierto said after several months of providing information to the military, the tipster was able to help them pinpoint the hideout of Echaniz.

Echaniz was arrested by members of the Philippine Army's 3rd Infantry Battalion from his hideout in Barangay Alok, Bago City in Negros Occidental last January 28.

The rebel leader is facing 15 counts of murder for his alleged involvement in the mass grave discovered by the military in Inopacan, Leyte on Aug. 6, 2006.

Insierto said the military is hoping to lure more NPA rebels to surrender and help them neutralize the communist movement.