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SAN FRANCISCO — Five days after he was rescued from nearly eight months in the hands of Muslim rebels in the Philippines, Jeffrey Schilling arrived home Wednesday to an emotional welcome. 

Schilling was met by his mother and a number of supporters at San Francisco International Airport before he was led by police to a waiting van. 

Schilling appeared gaunt, tired and a bit bewildered as he entered the terminal. He did not speak to reporters. 

Army troops in the Philippines found the Oakland resident barefoot and covered with mosquito bites when they rescued him Thursday on southern Jolo Island, where he had been held in a jungle since August by the Abu Sayyaf rebels. He left the Philippines for Guam, a U.S. territory 3,700 miles west of Hawaii, on Sunday after debriefings by American and Philippine authorities. 

Schilling, a Muslim convert, was detained by the Abu Sayyaf when he and his now-wife, Ivy Osani, traveled to an Abu Sayyaf camp last August. Osani, a cousin of one of the guerrillas, was allowed to go. 

However, Osani remains in the Philippines, where she is waiting for clearance to come to the U.S. It is not clear when that might happen. 

Schilling has denied links with the Abu Sayyaf and told reporters before he left the country that he wanted the military to continue assaults to annihilate the group. 

The Abu Sayyaf, one of three insurgency groups battling the government, threatened to behead Schilling as an April 5 birthday gift for Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. 

Arroyo responded by ordering a massive military assault against the Abu Sayyaf, resulting in Schilling’s rescue. 

Meanwhile, the wife of the final hostage held by Muslim guerillas pleaded Wednesday for his safe return so he can see his four-month-old son for the first time. 

Joy Acune, 34, said diving instructor Roland Ullah was unaware that she was pregnant with their second child when Abu Sayyaf separatist rebels captured him, 10 other resort workers and 10 Western tourists on Sipadan island off northeastern Borneo on April 23 last year. 

All the captives except Ullah were released or rescued in stages amid protracted negotiations, with Malaysia and Libya reportedly paying millions of dollars in ransom to the Abu Sayyaf.