The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) said Wednesday it is keen to hold the hearing Thursday on the complaint lodged by 43 health workers arrested by the military in Morong, Rizal last Feb. 6.

CHR Chairwoman Leila M. de Lima said the hearing, starting at 9 a.m. today at the conference room of the commission in Diliman, Quezon City, will proceed as scheduled even in the face of possible boycott by some of the respondents.

The military earned the goat of De Lima when soldiers and the military police prevented the entry of a team from the CHR a day after the dawn raid on a farm house in the town led to the detention of the 43 health workers, now known globally as Morong 43.

De Lima said the CHR will cite in contempt any of the respondents in the case, which included Maj. Gen. Jorge Segovia, commander of the 2nd Infantry Division based in Camp Capinpin, Tanay, Rizal, and Col. Aurelio Baladad of the 2002nd Infantry Brigade, along with St. Supt. Balonglong of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Rizal.

The complaining detainees, including two doctors, a midwife, the wife of former UP College of Fine Arts dean Prof. Leonilo Doloricon and Jane Balleta, daughter of the late Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran, charged the military with denying them access to lawyers, doctors and their relatives for 36 hours, during which they were handcuffed, interrogated and subjected to sense denial.

Among the respondents were state prosecutors sent by then Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera to conduct an inquest of the detainees and a Cavite court judge who issued the supposed arrest warrant for a certain Mr. Conde.