| Rescued U.S. hostage denies allying with Philippine rebels 04/13/2001 Associated Press MANILA, Philippines – In his first public comments since the end of his seven-month ordeal as a hostage of Muslim rebels, a California man today denied persistent rumors that he had joined the guerrillas and said he lost 100 pounds while in captivity.
During his first day back as a free man, Jeffrey Schilling, 25, wolfed down rice and an omelet with his bare hands and met with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Abu Sayyaf rebels had threatened to behead Schilling on April 5 for Arroyo's 54th birthday.
Arroyo called Schilling's rescue Thursday by elite troops on the southern island of Jolo – where he had been held since August – "a triumph of good over evil."
Schilling spoke briefly with reporters Friday in the northern city of Baguio, where he was examined at a military hospital and found to be in good health, despite his ordeal in the jungle.
The Oakland, Calif., native denied rumors that he was a willing hostage of the Abu Sayyaf, which 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 an Abu Sayyaf 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 not an assenting hostage.
"If we thought otherwise we would not have gone after him," Villanueva said.
Schilling said his immediate plans were simple: "Go back to the U.S. and be with my family."
In a video provided by the military, Schilling used his hands to scoop down fried chicken, fried fish, an omelet, rice, a sandwich and chunks of mango Friday morning at an army base in Jolo town, on Jolo island. He ate voraciously, glanced steadily around and then drank coffee and chatted with military officers after he arrived via attack helicopter from a remote jungle spot.
He then flew to the capital of Manila on Friday in a military transport plane, dressed in Philippine army camouflage fatigues. He looked much thinner than the 250 pounds he weighed before he was captured, but fit and alert. From there he flew to Baguio, where he met Arroyo.
Government troops and police rescue Schilling on Thursday when they stormed a guerrilla hide-out on Jolo, about 580 miles south of Manila.
Demanding $10 million in ransom, the Abu Sayyaf threatened to kill Schilling on April 5 – Arroyo's birthday. Arroyo responded to the threat by ordering "all-out war" on the group.
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.
"They must surrender if they value their lives," Arroyo told DZMM radio on Thursday. "This is a fight to the finish."
Schilling's relieved mother, Carol Schilling, said Thursday she was looking forward to her son returning home.
"I'm going to tell him I love him and I'm going to give him a great big hug and then I'm going to revoke his passport," she said.
Schilling was taken by the rebels after he visited their camp on Aug. 31, accompanied by wife Ivy Osani, a cousin of Abu Sabaya. She was allowed to go; Schilling wasn't.
Osani, who says she suffered a miscarriage during Schilling's captivity, said Friday she was "very happy that he has been rescued. I will have inner peace now."
State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said the United States was "grateful" to Arroyo, the Philippine government and the country's armed forces for freeing Schilling.
"The Philippines deserves full credit for this successful outcome," Reeker said in a statement Thursday.
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.
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