Manila: The Armed Forces of the Philippines have denied claims made by insurgents that the government had suffered huge losses in the recent fighting in Southern Philippines' Bukidnon.

"There is no truth to claims by the New People's Army (NPA) that the military had suffered 22 casualties from the Bukidnon clashes," Colonel Leopoldo Galon, spokesman of the Armed Forces Eastern Mindanao Command, said.

He stressed that the military had only suffered four fatalities from the encounter in Kitaotao district.

Galon has called on the media to exercise caution when using press statements issued by the insurgents "as these are meant to deceive the public and bolster the morale of other rebels."

"That's how the NPA runs [its] propaganda nowadays," Galon was quoted as saying in a report that reached Manila.

Intensified operations

Government forces have been intensifying their operations in the Bukidnon area, a strategic crossing joining the eastern and southern Mindanao regions.

In a statement, Rigoberto Sanchez of the Medardo Arce Command of the NPA's Southern Mindanao Regional Operations Command, said six soldiers were killed while 16 others were wounded in attacks carried out against security forces in Kitaotao town.

The rebel official added that the inter-front operations carried out against 23rd Infantry Battalion and the 8th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine army "[were] aimed at responding to the local peasants' clamour against the atrocious military combat operations."

Assault rifles recovered

In Davao Oriental, Southern Mindanao, elite troops from the Army Scout Rangers clashed with communist rebels in the village of San Isidro, Lupon town. The clashes lasted about 30 minutes.

Following the firefight, government troops recovered two assault rifles.

The military said there were no casualties on their side but said there was evidence that some rebels had been wounded.

As the communist insurgency wanes in most parts of the archipelago, there has been a noticeable upsurge in NPA activities in the resource-rich southern Mindanao and eastern Mindanao areas.

Guerrillas on a rampage

The Philippine's military yesterday said communist guerrillas killed about 100 government troops and police officers and waged 447 attacks last year despite a continuing decline in their decades-long insurgency.

Military spokesman Colonel Arnulfo Burgos said that the attacks by New People's Army (NPA) guerrillas included 31 assaults on mining firms, banana plantations and other businesses. He said they earned nearly $7 million (Dh25.7 million) from extortion in 2011.

Burgos said the rebels' reliance on the extortion of businesses and poor villagers reflects a decline in their support from communities.