President Arroyo tells family hostage is released

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2004

MANILA (AFP) — President Gloria Arroyo told a relative of Filipino hostage Angelo de la Cruz that he has been released and is on his way to a Baghdad hotel, according to a report by local television news channel ANC.

De la Cruz, 46, was abducted as he drove into Iraq from Saudi Arabia by a group calling itself the Khaled Ibn al-Walid Brigade, which threatened to execute him if the Philippines did not withdraw its troops from Iraq by Sunday.

Labor Secretary Patricia Santo Tomas confirmed de la Cruz had been freed from the clutches of his Iraqi captors, according to a report carried Saturday on the ABS-CBN news website.

The labor chief said she got the information from the President herself, who rang the wife of de la Cruz, to tell her the good news.

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