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.