Angelo de la Cruz left home to earn money to save his son's eyesight
Filipino truck driver Angelo de la Cruz went to the Middle East on a mission: to raise the money for an operation to save the eyesight of his six-year-old son.
But even before the former hostage arrives back on home soil he will have achieved something even greater - reunifying his country that was bitterly divided after the May presidential election.
The nation celebrated as one when the news of Mr de la Cruz's release broke yesterday, just as it had been united in its prayers for him while he was held captive for two weeks and threatened with beheading.
Muslims and Christians, communists and conservatives, all prayed for Mr de la Cruz's release, demanding the government give in to the militants' by withdrawing its troop contingent from Iraq.
The story of a working-class family man who found himself in grave peril after being forced to find work abroad struck a deep chord in the Filipino psyche.