Rescued U.S. hostage arrives safely in RP

Rescued U.S. hostage arrives safely in RP

MANILA (Agencies): Rescued from Philippine rebels who
threatened to behead him, a California man denied on Friday he
had joined the guerrillas and said he lost 45 kilograms during
seven months of captivity.

Jeffrey Schilling, 25, wolfed down food with his bare hands
before meeting with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and
speaking briefly to reporters. Arroyo called the rescue "a
triumph of good over evil."

A day after elite troops freed him in a raid on the southern
island of Jolo, Schilling said his immediate plans were simple:
"Go back to the U.S. and be with my family." Military doctors
said he was in good health despite being held since August in the
jungle by Abu Sayyaf rebels.

Schilling denied persistent rumors that he was a willing
hostage of the group that says it is fighting to carve a separate
Muslim homeland out of the southern Philippines.

Civilians on Jolo reported seeing Schilling, a Muslim convert
who married a guerrilla leader's cousin shortly before he was
taken captive, carrying a rifle on patrol with the guerrillas.

"I was never in cahoots with the Abu Sayyaf," Schilling said,
adding that he was forced to carry the weapon.

Gen. Diomedio Villanueva, armed forces chief of staff, said
officials were convinced that Schilling was an unwilling hostage.
"If we thought otherwise we would not have gone after him,"
Villanueva said.

Government troops and police rescued the Oakland, California
native on Thursday when they stormed a guerrilla hide-out on the
island of Jolo.

In Washington, the U.S. State Department hailed the
Philippines' rescue of Schilling from more than seven months'
detention by Muslim rebels, applauding a refusal to bow to
"terrorist" demands.

The authorities in both countries were in close touch
throughout Schilling's ordeal "and the Philippines deserves full
credit for this successful outcome," said Philip Reeker, a State
Department spokesman.

"The United States looks forward to continuing its close
cooperation with the Philippines to combat terrorism and prevent
future terrorist acts," he said in a statement. "We are pleased
that the Philippine government refused to give in to terrorist
demands."

Philippine marines freed Schilling, 25, after a 45-minute
gunbattle with fundamentalist abductors who had threatened to
behead him. Unhurt except for a few bruises, he had been held
since Aug. 28 by about 25 rebels on the island of Jolo, about 600
miles south of Manila.

Schilling voraciously consumed fried chicken, fried fish, an
omelet, rice, a sandwich and chunks of mango with his bare hands
Friday morning in his first meal in freedom.

Dressed in Philippine army camouflage fatigues to greet
Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes and a U.S. embassy official,
Schilling, who weighed 113 kilograms before his capture, was
notably slimmer and sported a closely trimmed beard.

Schilling later flew to a military hospital in the northern
city of Baguio where he met Arroyo.

Demanding $10 million in ransom, the Abu Sayyaf threatened to
behead Schilling on April 5 as a gift for Arroyo's 54th birthday.
Arroyo responded to the threat by ordering "all-out war" on the
group, based on Jolo, about 940 kilometers south of Manila.

The military last week poured 3,000 troops into the island's
steamy jungles, then sent in 1,800 reinforcements early Thursday.

Rebel chief Abu Sabaya and other leaders are still at large,
Villanueva said, adding that the military will continue its
assault until all guerrilla leaders are captured. There are
thought to be some 1,200 Abu Sayyaf fighters.

The Abu Sayyaf, the smallest of the three major insurgency
groups in the Philippines, shot to international notoriety last
year after seizing dozens of hostages, many of them foreigners,
in two daring raids in Malaysia. With Schilling's rescue, only
Roland Ulla, a Filipino worker at a scuba diving resort, remains
in captivity.