MANILA, Philippines -- Former congressman Jose Villarosa is a free man after prison authorities officially released him from custody Wednesday afternoon, the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) officer-in-charge, Superintendent Ramon Reyes said.

"He is no longer in the custody of the NBP. He's free to go," the prison official said.

The correctional facility received the order of release from the Court of Appeals mid-morning Wednesday and Villarosa, former congressman from Occidental Mindoro, was formally discharged at about 4 p.m.

A cancer patient at the Makati Medical Center, Villarosa went to the NBP facility in Muntinlupa with his wife, Deputy Speaker Amelita Villarosa of the House of Representatives, and a few bodyguards, Reyes said.

"He was smiling but he looked very frail," the prison official said.

He was already garbed in civilian clothes, he said: "He was wearing a light blue polo shirt and dark pants."

Villarosa, whose conviction of murder in the killing of the sons of a political rival was overturned by the Court of Appeals, told Reyes that he would likely be back at the Makati Medical Center very soon, but he did not say when.