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Former captive chows down on fried chicken on first leg of journey home 

MANILA, Philippines – An Oakland, Ca. man rescued from Muslim rebels who threatened to behead him arrived safely in the northern Philippines on Friday, a day after elite troops rescued him in a raid on a southern island. 

Jeffrey Schilling, 25, 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. Schilling was held hostage by Abu Sayyaf Muslim rebels for more than seven months. 

Government troops and police rescued Schilling on Thursday after they stormed a guerrilla hide-out on the island of Jolo. 

A Philippine military video showed Schilling drinking coffee and chatting with army officers after he rode an attack helicopter from a remote jungle to an army base in the town of Jolo on Friday. 

From Jolo he flew in a military transport plane to Manila, where he arrived fit and alert and dressed in Philippine army camouflage fatigues, to greet Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes and a U.S. embassy official. Schilling, who weighed 250 pounds 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 was to meet President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. 

The Abu Sayyaf guerrilla group threatened to behead Schilling on April 5 as a “birthday gift” to Arroyo, who turned 54 that day. The rebels had demanded $10 million in ransom from the Philippine or U.S. governments. 

Arroyo responded to the threat by ordering “all-out war” on the group, based on the island of Jolo, about 580 miles south of Manila. 

The military last week poured 3,000 troops into the steamy jungles of Jolo and then sent in 1,800 reinforcements early Thursday. 

The troops found Schilling when raiding a guerrilla hide-out in the island’s Luuk area on Thursday afternoon. 

Rebel chief Abu Sabaya and other leaders are still at large, Philippine military Chief of Staff Diomedio Villanueva said late Thursday. 

He said the military will continue their 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 told The Associated Press from California. 

Schilling said she talked to her son Thursday about 10:30 p.m. 

“He sounded composed and practical. He is looking forward to spending time with friends and family when he returns home,” she said. 

Schilling, a Muslim convert, was taken by the rebels after he visited their camp in Jolo on Aug. 31. He was accompanied by his wife, Ivy Osani, a cousin of Abu Sabaya. Osani was freed after the rebels seized Schilling. 

The strange circumstances of his kidnapping led some local military officials to speculate that Schilling might have been cooperating with the rebels. There were unconfirmed reports that he was seen, armed, on rebel patrols. 

Schilling’s wife, who says she suffered a miscarriage in Schilling’s fourth month of captivity, said Friday she is “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 United States looks forward to continuing its close cooperation with the Philippines to combat terrorism and prevent future terrorist acts.” 

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 daring raids. With Schilling’s rescue, only Roland Ulla, a Filipino worker at a scuba diving resort, remains in captivity. 

The Abu Sayyaf claims it is fighting for a separate Islamic state in the southern Philippines, but the government regards it as a bandit gang.