Filipino hostage released

2004-07-10 18:11

Manila - A Filipino truck driver taken hostage in Iraq and threatened with execution has been released by his Islamic captors, a Philippine official said on Saturday.

Labour Secretary Patricia Santo Tomas said Angelo de la Cruz, 46, "is now being brought to a hotel" in Baghdad after being freed by Islamic militants who earlier threatened to kill him.

Santo Tomas said the good news was relayed by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo through a telephone call to De la Cruz' wife, Arsenia.

"Everybody is happy and shouting," she said from a hotel in the Clark economic zone in Pampanga province, 75km north of Manila, where the De la Cruz family was staying.

Santo Tomas said no other information was immediately available.

De la Cruz, who has eight children, was abducted by gunmen belonging to a group called the Khaled Bin al-Walid Squadrons, part of the Islamic Army of Iraq.

The militants had threatened to kill the hostage if the Philippines did not withdraw its 51-member humanitarian contingent from Iraq by Sunday. - Sapa-dpa

- SAPA