MANILA, 23 July 2004 — Threatened with beheading during his two weeks of captivity in Iraq, freed Filipino hostage Angelo dela Cruz arrived home to a welcome that took on the trappings of a royal visit, with live television coverage.

“Welcome home, Angelo” read streamers stretched along EDSA, metropolitan Manila’s main boulevard.

His long hair tucked under a baseball cap, the 46-year-old was embraced by his eight children as he disembarked at Manila international airport. He said he was still too shocked by his two-week ordeal to say how it had affected him.

“I am sorry I can’t answer you because I am still confused and I want to spend time with my family,” he told a news conference, clearly dazed by his transformation from an unknown truck-driver to a household name and symbol of the 8 million Filipinos working abroad to support their families back home.

He is to attend a Catholic mass today with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who risked close ties with Washington to save the life of a worker she described as a Filipino Everyman.

Close to tears and looking tired and worn, dela Cruz wore a shirt printed with the words “I am a Filipino” on the front and “To work is honorable” on the back.

He declined to answer questions about how he felt about Manila’s foreign policy shift, and repeatedly thanked Arroyo and other Philippine officials for saving him. “I want to thank President Arroyo and our government and that the president gave my life priority,” he said, before heading off to spend time with his family. “I can never ever forget that.”

Arroyo called up dela Cruz two hours after he landed in Manila to invite him to attend mass in the northern province of Pangasinan and later issued a proclamation declaring Friday a “day of thanksgiving and prayer” for his release.

Fit for a King

For a day, the sprawling archipelago overcame its political, economic and social divisions in a celebration of life. Dela Cruz has become a national icon for a poverty-wracked country that has more than 7 million of its citizens working abroad, including 1.4 million in the Middle East.

Filipinos from all walks of life held prayer vigils, lit candles and tied yellow ribbons for dela Cruz’s safe return.

Leoncio Nakpil, head security officer for Gulf Air, said 12 first-class seats — each worth $3,000 — had been provided free of charge for dela Cruz’s party, which included his wife, brother and government officials, for the nearly nine-hour flight from Abu Dhabi.

“It’s a trip fit for a king. Whatever ordeal he went through should be compensated by the luxury of this trip,” he said, referring to the British and Australian chefs on board.

Dela Cruz was to stay in Manila overnight before heading to his two-room shack in Buenavista, a village about a two-hour drive to the north in Arroyo’s home province, Pampanga.

Seven of dela Cruz’s eight children met him at the airport, where he was flown from the United Arab Emirates.

Contrary View

Opposition Rep. Gilbert Remulla of Cavite questioned the hero’s welcome and media hype, saying dela Cruz was just one of many Filipino truck drivers in Iraq who had risked being caught by Iraqi guerrillas.

Remulla, a former broadcast journalist and a master’s degree holder in international politics at the Columbia University, said dela Cruz’s captivity in the hands of Iraqi militants was “absolutely not a demonstration of heroism.”

“He looked very desperate and doesn’t look like a hero to me,” he said, referring to video footage of dela Cruz begging the Philippine government to pull out its troops from Iraq.

Remulla also questioned why there was too much media hype on the hostage crisis — the kind of attention never given to other Filipino workers who were also victims of violence abroad.

Remulla said that while dela Cruz and his family should rejoice over his safe release, he could not see any reason “why this sense of victory should be shared by the entire nation as there are more Filipinos who are in a worse situation than dela Cruz.”

“The president’s decision to pull out our humanitarian contingent in Iraq maybe popular among Filipinos but it tainted our international image in the eyes of our allies,” Remulla said. “We should not gloat about this if indeed we can call this a triumph. Let us leave this issue to rest and just prepare for the international backlash.”

Time to Celebrate

Remulla was definitely not alone in his observation. Some OFWs have raised questions on the excessive attention the government has given dela Cruz but little or none at all for others, including a civil engineer killed in a blast in Baghdad last month.

But the contrarian views were drowned by the euphoria over dela Cruz’s release.

“It’s time for celebration,” said Pampanga Gov. Mark Lapid, who was tasked to lead preparations for the hostage’s homecoming.

Relatives were preparing dela Cruz’s favorite dish — a goat-and-beef stew — and lechon.

Dela Cruz was captured near Fallujah on July 4 and released Tuesday. He then flew to Abu Dhabi for a tearful reunion with his wife, Arsenia, and brother.

Dela Cruz, who asked for time alone with his family in the coming days, said he would not return to the Middle East and expressed concern for the 4,000 Filipino contract workers on US bases in Iraq.

“As we know, Iraq is still very dangerous,” he said.

Roy Cimatu, one of the Philippine officials who helped secure dela Cruz’s release, said Philippine embassies are asking countries near Iraq not to allow Filipino truck drivers to cross their border into the war-torn nation to prevent future kidnappings.

Dela Cruz said his kidnappers generally had treated him well during his two weeks of captivity.

“Maybe they don’t need to be punished because they really treated me well,” dela Cruz said. “After a while, they treated me like a friend. Maybe they saw that I was close to God. They said Filipinos are friends of Iraqis.”