MANILA, Philippines?A health workers? group has accused the military of torturing the 43 medical workers, including two doctors, who were arrested during a training seminar in Morong, Rizal last Saturday.

?Based on accounts by the detainees, the Armed Forces of the Philippines subjected them to various forms of torture and sexual harassment,? Dr. Geneve Rivera, secretary general of the Health Alliance for Democracy (HEAD) said in a statement.

She said even the pregnant women were not spared the interrogation and harassment.

Rivera said she was included in Commission on Human Rights chairman Leila De Lima's party when she visited the detained medical workers Monday.

Through De Lima, the detained health workers were also able to see their relatives and relate how they were kept in handcuffs and blindfolds for more than 36 hours after they were brought to Camp Capinpin, headquarters of the Army's 202nd Infantry Brigade.

She said 60-year-old Dr. Alex Montes was electrocuted and punched on the chest several times during interrogation. Rivera added that after several hours of the torture, ?he was willing to admit to anything? that his torturers wanted him to admit.

?They were not allowed to go to the bathrooms on their own and their custodians were the ones who removed their underwear every time they had to urinate. A female health worker complained that a female custodian was even the one who washed her genitals after she used the bathroom,? Rivera said.

Military and police operatives raided a rest house owned by another doctor in Morong, Rizal, on Saturday morning and arrested 43 people including Dr. Montes, Dr. Merry Mia, nurse Gary Liberal, midwife Teresa Quinawayan and some health workers.

The military claimed the health workers were communist rebels who were training in bomb-making.

Rivera described Dr. Montes and Dr. Mia as long-time members of the nongovernment organizations Community Medicine Development Foundation (COMMED) and Council for Health and Development (CHD), respectively.

She said the two doctors, the nurse and the midwife were conducting a health skills training among community volunteers.

She said the detained health workers were forced to admit to being members of the communist New People's Army. They were reportedly confined in dark cells and forced to listen to sounds of gunfire.

They were not allowed to speak to each other and men would come in every night to hit them and take their pictures.

?One of those detained already had sore arms and wrists from being tied down for so long,? Rivera said.

She said a certain Col. Aurelio Baladad taunted the health workers and their relatives during their tearful reunion, and called them ?paid actors.?

?The mental and physical torture inflicted by the Armed Forces is inhumane and criminal. That they can do this to the very people who care for our lives and well-being speaks volumes as to the kind of soldiers and officers the military establishment employs,? Rivera said.