Freed Filipino hostage leaves Iraq

Freed Filipino hostage Angelo de la Cruz left Iraq Wednesday morning for Abu Dhabi to receive a medical checkup before flying back home, according to a local television.

De la Cruz and some Philippine diplomat officials were going to Baghdad airport and from there Cruz will fly to Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, where he will get a reunion with his wife who has been staying in Jordan, awaiting his release, the ABS-CBN news channel reported.

After a brief halt there, Cruz will be on the way to the Philippines, the report said.

Meanwhile, Philippine Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said De la Cruz will not be brought to Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's annual Speech of Nation Address to Congress on July 26 as some newspapers had reported because de la Cruz asked to keep more privacy and preferred to stay with his families and villagers in the northern Philippine province of Pampanga.

De la Cruz, a 46-year-old father of eight, was released on Tuesday by his Iraqi captors after the Philippine government completed the withdrawal of its 51-member humanitarian contingent from Iraq on Monday.

De la Cruz was kidnapped in Iraq on July 7 by the militants who demanded the Philippine government to pull out the contingent one month before its original schedule on Aug. 20., otherwise, de la Cruz will be beheaded.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was forced to make the decision of the early withdrawal to save de la Cruz's life and for national interest, which was hailed by many Filipinos although criticized by the United States.