Forty-three suspected communist insurgents will go before a Philippine court on Monday despite fears that guerrillas may try to free them on the way to the hearing, the military said. The 43 were arrested on February 6 east of Manila but there were signs that their communist New People's Army (NPA) will try to free them, military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Noel Detoyato said on Sunday. 'They are NPA regulars and the NPA have a history of bailing out their comrades through violent means, so we are not taking any chances that they would do this while we are transporting the 43 to the Court of Appeals,' he said in an interview with ABS-CBN television. The arrest of the group was seen as the biggest haul of suspected NPA rebels in recent memory, but left-wing groups have charged that they were seized on trumped-up charges. President Gloria Arroyo's spokesman, Gary Olivar, told reporters: 'The point the military was making was that (last week's court) order was so sudden. 'There were so many suspects and there is a risk of running into trouble along the way to court.' The 43 were detained after a raid on a workshop that was supposed to be for training of medical personnel. However, the military said they were communist insurgents getting instructions on how to make explosives. Detoyato denied accusations from human rights groups that the military had delayed presenting the 43 at court because they were hiding signs that the captives had been abused. He said relatives of those detained had been allowed to meet with them in a military camp east of the capital. The 5,000-strong NPA is the armed wing of the underground Communist Party of the Philippines, which has been waging a Maoist rebellion since 1969. The military said in December it had reduced the territory controlled by the rebels, freeing four central islands from guerrilla control for the first time in decades. 