MANILA — The Philippine police said on Thursday that they had arrested a top leader of the country’s decades-old Communist insurgency, in the latest signal that President Rodrigo Duterte is not interested in resuming the peace talks he halted last year.

The rebel leader, Rafael Baylosis, 69, was arrested along with an aide on Wednesday in Quezon City, a northern suburb of Manila. The military says Mr. Baylosis is one of the top leaders of the New People’s Army, the armed wing of the underground Communist Party of the Philippines.

The arrest was the first of a Communist leader since Mr. Duterte called off peace negotiations with the insurgents in November. He has accused the rebels of using the talks as a cover to stage attacks, including one that left a young girl dead.

The police said on Thursday that Mr. Baylosis and his aide, Guillermo Roque, had been spotted by officers on a surveillance mission and that they had been “armed and suspicious looking.” They fled but were captured, and the officers seized handguns and ammunition from them, according to the police.