MANILA, Philippines – An Italian priest held hostage for over a month in the southern Philippines said Friday he lost 15 pounds on a meager diet during his ordeal but was not threatened by the Muslim militants who kidnapped him.

The Rev. Giancarlo Bossi, 57, said he did not believe he would be freed until he was dumped Thursday night along a road where police picked him up.

Bossi was kidnapped June 10 on his way to celebrate mass in southern Zamboanga Sibugay province. Police said his release followed negotiations with rogue elements of a Muslim separatist group.

Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno said no ransom was paid.

“There were some demands for ransom,” he said. “We discussed this matter with the Italian ambassador and the agreement we all arrived at was there would be zero ransom given.”

“From that time on, it was touch and go,” Puno said. He spoke at a news conference with Bossi in Zamboanga city before the priest was to fly to Manila, the Philipppine capital.

Looking haggard and thin, Bossi said in earlier media interviews that he had braced himself for months of captivity because that was how long kidnappers held two Italian priests several years ago.

Bossi said his captors treated him “with respect.”

“I never had the sensation that they wanted to kill me, nor did I ever receive a death threat or violence of any kind,” Bossi told the MISNA missionary news agency. “The food wasn’t great: rice, salt and dried fish. As a result I lost some weight. But I also stopped smoking; I haven’t touched a cigarette since June 27.”

He said he wanted to meet with his parishioners before heading back to Italy to see his family and that he needed time to reflect on his ordeal.

Bossi was freed in Karumatan township along the boundaries of southern Lanao Del Norte and Lanao Del Sur provinces, said Chief Superintendent Jaime Caringal, a regional police commander. He was barefoot and wearing a black jacket and loose brown trousers that did little to ward off the chill, Caringal said.

Bossi’s relatives in Italy had been celebrating his mother’s 87th birthday when they learned of his release.

“Truly it’s the best present for my mother’s birthday,” Bossi’s brother Marcello told Sky TG24.

Caringal identified Bossi’s kidnappers as rogue members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the main Muslim separatist group in the southern Philippines that has been involved in peace talks with the government. His release followed negotiations involving a former local mayor.

MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said the group had nothing to do with the kidnapping. Rebel Vice Chairman Ghazali Jaafar promised the MILF would coordinate with the government in investigating whether two of suspects named by the government have ties with the guerrillas.

Bossi said the kidnappers identified themselves as members of the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf group, which is notorious for kidnappings and beheadings, and came from nearby Basilan island.

Philippine forces have been intensely searching for Bossi across the south.

On July 10, a Philippine marine convoy checking a reported sighting of the priest was ambushed by Muslim insurgents in dense jungle on Basilan, and 14 troops were killed, 10 of them beheaded. The military blamed the Abu Sayyaf and the MILF.

“We are still running after them,” Puno said. “This was an unusual event and it required unusual tactics on the part of the Philippine National Police.”

Associated Press writers Jim Gomez and Teresa Cerojano in Manila and Nicole Winfield in Rome contributed to this report.

A service of the Associated Press(AP)