MANILA, Philippines?Looking gaunt and haggard, Eugenio Vagni on Sunday said he never thought he would come out alive from six months of Abu Sayyaf captivity on Jolo Island and even imagined ?my head in a big basket.?

But thanks to the nagging wives of the leader of his kidnappers, Albader Parad, who were captured on Tuesday at a military checkpoint, the 62-year-old Italian engineer of the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross is now free and unharmed.

Appearing before reporters in Zamboanga City after his release early Sunday from a 179-day ordeal in harsh jungle, a bearded and thin-looking Vagni was at times emotional as he thanked the Philippine military and local officials for working for his freedom.

?I am happy because I am free. I thank all the people that led to this happening,? Vagni said, struggling to remain composed as he talked of his excitement at seeing his wife and family. ?I thought it would never happen. I called my wife, and I told her, ?I love you.??

The arrest of Rowena ?Honey? Aksan and Nursima ?Simang? Annudden, two of Parad?s wives, played a crucial role in the release of Vagni, Navy spokesperson Lt. Col. Edgard Arevalo told the Inquirer.

?The arrest became a pressure on Parad because with two dear women nagging, he was persuaded to help work out Vagni?s release.?

Arevalo denied there was a ?prisoner swap.? He said the release of the women, arrested in connection with the kidnapping, would depend ?on the careful discretion of the prosecutor.?

Vagni was turned over to Sulu Vice Gov. Nur-Ana Sahidulla and he was taken to a military hospital for precautionary medical checks before being flown to nearby Zamboanga City, en route to Manila.

Sahidulla, who had previously negotiated for Vagni?s release, was alerted by the Abu Sayyaf to proceed to a village near Maimbung town after midnight, where officials found the Italian, Arevalo said.

Board and lodging fee

No ransom was paid for Vagni?s freedom, Sahidulla said. But she told reporters that she gave the kidnappers P50,000 as ?board and lodging fee? when one of the men asked for cigarette money.

?They were asking for any amount. So that we would not be delayed any longer, I gave P50,000 from my own pocket. It was for goodwill, it came from me and it was not ransom. No conditions attached,? she said.

Vagni extended his condolences to the families of several soldiers who died in clashes with Abu Sayyaf rebels during pursuit operations over the past six months. ?Condolences come deep from my heart,? he said.

Asked how he was treated by his captors, he said: ?They treated me well and they called me Apo (a respected elder).? But during his captivity, Vagni said, his health deteriorated by the day.

?We went to different places every week?different water, different food, my stomach suffered, I got diarrhea, and I had to adjust more, for every time we walk for many many hours, my body became weak every day. I got weaker, weaker and weaker but we had to go and walk.?

Will to see family

Wearing a dark shirt with a Philippine Marines logo and blue jogging pants, Vagni, visibly weak, smiled and waved to the cameras as he was reunited with his Thai wife and daughter at Villamor Air Base in Pasay City. He hugged them tightly and kissed them.
?Thank you, thank you all very much,? the beaming Italian waved to media men, who were not allowed near him.

?The will is to see my family, to see my wife and my daughter,? Vagni, near tears, told ABS-CBN television network in an interview on board the plane that took him from Jolo to Zamboanga.

?This gives you big strength because you know that your family is there waiting for you ? You adapt to the situation. You have no choice. And you survive everything.

?I only found some little paper, that to feel alive I was writing some thoughts to my wife,? said Vagni, adding he had been threatened with beheading. He said he often imagined seeing ?my head in a big basket.?

He said he had been fed dried fish and rice, and had lost 20 kilos (44 lb).

When will killings end?

Before he left Zamboanga for Manila, Vagni thanked those who prayed and worked for his release, saying: ?I was thinking that it will never happen.?

Vagni said he was not aware that his coworker, Swiss Andreas Notter, had escaped, adding the rebels separated them because he couldn?t keep pace with his captors in the jungle due to a hernia.

Notter walked away from his captors in April, several days after another Red Cross worker, Filipino Mary Jean Lacaba, was set free by the rebels. The three were taken hostage on Jan. 15 after they inspected a sanitation project at a prison on Jolo.

Sahidulla said Parad decided to free Vagni but insisted that the government should not forget its commitment to rehabilitate strife-torn Sulu.

?I also told them that the military is going after them and that his men were being killed in each encounter. Does he want them and their families wiped out? Also, the civilian population is suffering. When will all the killings on both sides end?? Sahidulla said.

Disrupted by gunfire

The negotiations on Saturday were disrupted by gunfire after Parad?s group apparently encountered a group of soldiers. Parad quickly left and Sahidulla said she feared that Vagni would not be released.

But late that night, she said Parad called to apologize for the disruption, and said he was sending someone to show her directions to where the Italian was being held.

?He did not want me to go because I have several bodyguards with me, but I insisted and said I would only bring three policemen with me. We found Vagni in a coconut forest.?

Sahidulla said she later learned that place was at Barangay Lagasan in neighboring Maimbung town, three to four hours away.

?The military is going after their group and his men are being killed in each encounter. Also, the civilian population is suffering,? Sahidulla told reporters.

She said the men who released Vagni to her seemed to be different from Parad?s group, adding, ?I don?t know who they were, probably it?s their Abu Sayyaf comrades whose faces I saw for the first time.?

Remarkably well

ICRC spokesperson Anastasia Isyuk said Vagni was doing ?remarkably well? despite his ordeal and concerns for his health?he has a hernia and there were earlier fears about his state of mind.

She declined to discuss the terms of his release, but stressed that the international aid agency did not pay a ransom.

The ICRC?s head of delegation to the Philippines, Jean-Daniel Tauxe, said the group was ?relieved and happy? that Vagni had finally got out, stressing it would continue its humanitarian programs in the country.

Welcoming Vagni?s release, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said his freeing was not the result of military action, which his government had rejected.

The Abu Sayyaf had previously threatened to behead one of its three captives if government forces did not withdraw. That demand was initially rejected, but Manila later relented after public appeals by the captives? families. Reports from Jocelyn R. Uy, Jerome Aning and Kristine L. Alave; Julie S. Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao; AP, AFP and Reuters