MANILA, 23 June 2005 — Filipino accountant Roberto Tarongoy has finally been released after more than half a year as a captive of a militant group in Iraq.

Tarongoy was interviewed live over a national news program while at the Philippine Embassy in Iraq waiting for his flight to Manila.

In a phone interview with GMA television, an emotional Tarongoy thanked President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. “She did not neglect me,” he said.

He also thanked the diplomats who helped secure his freedom.

Asked how his captors treated him, Tarongoy’s voice cracked. “You know how long I was kept there. It was difficult.”

An ecstatic Arroyo announced to media Tarongoy's release in the central Philippine city of Cebu while visiting the Pink Sisters Convent.

“At last, Robert Tarongoy is coming home after a long time,” Arroyo exclaimed. “Thank you, thank you God! Long live Overseas Filipino Workers!”

Arroyo said the news about Tarongoy’s release came on the same day Tarongoy and his wife, Ivy, were celebrating their third year wedding anniversary.

Tarongoy’s family jumped for joy at their home in the southern city of Davao.

“It’s a very wonderful gift for both of us. I’m very happy,” his wife said by phone.

Arroyo cited Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Rafael Seguis and his team composed of Charge d’Affaires Eric Endaya, Consul Ezzedine Tago and Labor Attaché Angelo Jimenez for “fulfill(ing) their vow to bring Bobby Tarongoy safely home at great risk to their lives.”

Tarongoy could be home as early as Thursday, said Seguis, who had vowed not to shave and not return to the Philippines without the captive.

Seguis said Tarongoy was happy over his release but a bit disoriented from having been blindfolded throughout his seven-month captivity.

Tarongoy was seized from his workplace along with an American colleague last November. The fate of the American remains unknown.

Amid repeated threats by the militants to execute Tarongoy, pressures from US officials not to negotiate with the kidnappers, and calls by Filipinos to secure the hostage's freedom, Seguis and his team toiled to do what seemed impossible.

No ransom was paid, said Seguis, who led a government negotiating team.

Several Middle Eastern countries including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Jordan, along with Muslim clerics, helped get Tarongoy released, Seguis told GMA.

The release was a relief to Arroyo, who has been grappling with accusations that her family pocketed illegal gambling payoffs and that she rigged last year’s elections. The charges have set off a political storm and the most serious challenge in her current presidential term.

Filipino truck driver Angelo de la Cruz was freed last July 22 after Iraqi insurgents held him hostage for about two weeks.

He was released after the Philippine government granted the militants’ demand for the early withdrawal of its small peacekeeping contingent from Iraq — a decision strongly criticized by Washington and other allies, but applauded at home.

After de la Cruz’s abduction, the Philippine government banned the additional deployment of Filipino workers to Iraq and asked neighboring countries not to let Filipinos use their territory to enter the violence-stricken nation.

About 6,000 Filipinos now work in US military camps across Iraq, mostly as cooks and maintenance personnel.

They’re part of a 7 million-strong Filipino work force scattered around the world to escape widespread poverty and unemployment at home. The money they send home — estimated to reach $9 billion this year — is crucial to the Philippines’ fragile economy.

They have also become an important part of the electorate since gaining the right to vote, starting in last year’s closely fought presidential elections. (Additional input from The Associated Press)