LUCENA City -- Joint military and police operatives on Saturday arrested a rebel leader responsible for the raid of a municipal police station that resulted in the death of its police chief in Bgy. Kalantipayan, Lopez, Quezon.

Reports reaching the office of Sothern Luzon Command (Solcom) under its commander, Lt. Gen. Roland Detabali, identified the arrested rebel leader as Miguale Pinero, alias Mig, a member of the Southern Tagalog Regional Party Commitee, and the commander of the New People's Army's Guerilla Unit Squad operating in the Bondoc Peninsula (3rd district).

Solcom spokesman Col. Generoso Bolina said Pinero was arrested by joint elements of the Army's 201st Infantry Brigade under Col. Eduardo Año and Quezon police under Senior Supt. Ericson Velasquez, at around 1 p.m. on the strength of four warrants for murder, frustrated murder, malicious mischief and robbery in band.

Pinero yielded a caliber .45 pistol,  hand grenade, eight cellphones and various sim cards and different mobile phone and laptop computer gadgets.

Pinero was first brought to the headquarters of 85th Infantry Battalion in Lopez, for custodial debriefing before he was turned over to Lopez Police Station for investigation and filing of cases, Bolina said.

According to Bolina, Pinero led a group of rebels who raided the Lopez Police Station in 2002, which left its commander, Supt. Cesar Santander, dead. The rebels also wounded some policemen during the attack before they took all their firearms.

Only last week, the same military and police units arrested Fidel Tarasona Holanda, a member of the local executive committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines operating in Southern Quezon, and a male employee of the Lucena City government by virtue of a warrant for murder.

The duo yielded nine improvised bombs, a laptop computer and four mobile phones during the arrest.