MANILA, Philippines ? Several female health workers detained at Camp Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal, were "sexually molested" by their military captors, according to a mother of one of the alleged victims.

Jane Balleta, 27, made the disclosure Saturday to her mother, Ofelia Beltran-Balleta, daughter of the late militant labor leader and Anakpawis partylist representative Crispin when she visited her at the military camp.

"Jane whispered to me that she and the other detainees were blindfolded when brought to a comfort room. There, soldiers touched their private parts," Ofelia told the Philippine Daily Inquirer at her residence in Barangay (village) Commonwealth, GAO, Quezon City, in the presence of Senator Ma. Ana Consuelo ?Jamby? Madrigal.

Ofelia gave her full consent for the Inquirer to disclose her daughter?s name in this report. She said Jane was sharing a ?cell? with another female detainee on Saturday, the last time she saw her at the military camp.

Jane, an employee of the Council for Health Development, a non-government organization, was among the 43 health workers, including two doctors, who were rounded up on Feb. 6.

A military and police team arrested the health workers on suspicion that they were communist rebels in Morong, Rizal while they were attending a training seminar.

Of the 43, more than half are women.

The military reiterated on Sunday that allegations of sexual molestation were "purely propaganda" aimed at discrediting the operation it carried out in Morong.

Lieutenant Colonel Romeo Brawner Jr., said the detainees were being treated well. "Female soldiers keep watch over female detainees while male soldiers are assigned solely to guard male detainees," he said.

Brawner said Major General Jorge Segovia, chief of the 2nd Infantry Division, was personally supervising the conditions inside the camp to ensure that the rights of the detainees were observed.

But Ofelia said her daughter?s human rights were gravely violated. ?She cried, but she said she was trying to be emotionally strong.?

Beltran?s daughter said Jane and fellow health workers were "traumatized" by their ordeal at the hands of unidentified military men.

Ofelia said she also worried that Jane, who has a ?mild case of epilepsy,? might have attacks while in detention. Jane is a widow with a three-year-old daughter.

She said her daughter had told her about her ordeal ? including the sexual molestation ? in whispers. This was because two military men stood nearby guarding their conversation.

The detainees? visitors that day were only given 30 minutes to see their loved ones, she said.

Ofelia and her mother, Rosario, sought the help of Madrigal in bringing Jane and her co-health workers' case to higher authorities.

Madrigal, a Beltran family friend, assured them of her full support. Last Friday, the independent presidential candidate attended a hearing of the case at the Court of Appeals in Manila.

The Supreme Court has ordered the military to present the detainees to the Court of Appeals? first division.

The military said it would present the health workers Monday.

The Army's 2nd Infantry Division put in place security plans for the transport of the suspected rebels from a detention facility in Tanay to Manila in coordination with other agencies, Brawner said.

"There is always the possibility of an ambush to rescue them," Brawner said, explaining that this was the major concern of the military when it decided not to present the detainees before the Court of Appeals last Friday.

Saying that the military was not trained to conduct investigations, Senator Rodolfo Biazon urged the AFP to turn over the custody of the health workers to the police.

Biazon also called on the military to turn over to the police the supposed pieces of evidence it had against the health workers.

?If I were still in the military, I would have turned them over to the police for proper investigation and the proper filing of charges,? said Biazon, a former armed forces chief of staff.

Biazon wondered why the military was still holding the detainees.

Brawner said that based on the military?s assessment, the 43 suspected members of the New People's Army, the armed wing of the Communist party of the Philippines, would remain safe in detention at Camp Capinpin.

"They will not be transferred to another detention facility," he said.

Citing the case of the health workers, Madrigal said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo "has been ruling like martial law all over again."

Madrigal observed that "even our courts are not there to protect our civil liberties but to perpetuate the tyrannical moves of the Arroyo administration."

She said Commission on Human Rights Chair Leila de Lima "has been extremely cooperative (with the health workers' legal counsel Romeo Capulong), but they can't do anything because the CHR can't enforce. They can only monitor."