A Filipino truck driver taken hostage by gunmen in Iraq earlier this week was released, Philippine Labor Secretary Patricia Santo Tomas said Saturday night.

Angelo de la Cruz, 46, was released by his captors in Iraq and was on his way to an undisclosed hotel in Baghdad, Santo Tomas said, just hours before the otherwise hostage's imminent execution.

She said a source from Baghdad had relayed the news to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who, in turn, sent a text message to de la Cruz's family late Saturday.

"While this man is still not in our hands, he will be brought to a hotel in Baghdad, where he will be turned over to our people," the ABS-CBN television station quoted Santo Tomas as saying.

The labor secretary was staying with the hostage's family in a hotel at the former US Clark Air Base north of Manila.

The release of de la Cruz ended his three days of ordeal after being kidnapped and taken hostage Wednesday evening by Iraqi militants, who identified themselves as members of the Khalid bin Waleed Corps of the Islamic Army opposed to the US presence in Iraq.

De la Cruz, in a videotape aired on Arabic television station Al-Jazeera earlier Saturday, appealed to the Philippine government to withdraw from Iraq the 51-member contingent of soldiers, police and health workers.

His captors had set a 72-hour deadline, which expires 2 a.m. Sunday Manila time (1800 GMT Saturday), for beheading him if the Philippines did not pull out its contingent from Iraq.

But Manila indicated earlier Saturday it was standing firm on its decision to keep the contingent in Iraq, at least, for the time being.

Source: Xinhua