A human rights group protested Sunday the arrests of dozens of suspected communist guerrillas accused of bomb-making near the Philippine capital, saying that those detained were in fact volunteer health workers. About 100 army troops and police arrested the 43 men and women in a raid early Saturday of a residential compound in Morong township east of Manila. Military officials said they seized two pistols, three grenades, land mines and bomb-making materials from the compound. The suspected rebels were “doing bomb-making seminars and medical training,” regional military spokesman 1st Lt. Celeste Frank Sayson said in a statement. Army Col. Aurelio Baladad, who helped lead the raid, said the suspects will be charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives. But Karapatan, a prominent human rights group, said those arrested, who included 26 women, were volunteer medical workers serving impoverished communities and were doing nothing illegal. The group said the troops and policemen used an invalid arrest warrant and placed guns and explosives in the house to justify the arrests. Karapatan leader Roneo Clamor said that his wife, a doctor, was among those arrested. Baladad denied the group's claims. He said at least three of those arrested were rebels who have been detained before for illegal arms possession but were freed after the cases were dismissed. The 41-year rural rebellion to create a communist state in the Philippines has stunted economic development and led to extrajudicial killings and human rights abuses on both sides. Peace talks between the rebels and the government brokered by Norway collapsed in 2004 after the guerrillas blamed the government for their inclusion on US and European lists of terrorist groups. President Arroyo has ordered the military to defeat the 5,000
