Today is the first day of the rest of Eugenio Vagni?s life?and for once that trite phrase is burdened with meaning. It is truly his first day, for he is, once again, a free man. The International Committee of the Red Cross engineer was released by his abductors on Sunday, after six months in harrowing captivity, considerably thinner and visibly weaker but, by most accounts, healthy enough and in good spirits.

He told reporters in Zamboanga City, before taking a flight to Manila, that he did not think the day of his release would ever come. ?I was thinking that it will never happen.?

Earlier, on the flight from Jolo to Zamboanga, the 61-year-old Italian explained what kept him going through the unspeakable ordeal. ?The will is to see my family, to see my wife and my daughter.? He added: ?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.?

His words are moving, because they testify to the strength of spirit that makes endurance possible?and prove that the inhumanity of his captors did not brutalize him.

But how did he come to find himself abandoned by his kidnappers in a remote location in Maimbung town in Jolo Sunday morning? The best answer is: A confluence of different factors led to his release.

It is important to stress this, because we can only recover from the trauma of another high-profile international kidnapping and prevent another one if we draw the right lessons, from his release as well as from the earlier release or walk to freedom of fellow Red Cross hostages Mary Jean Lacaba on April 2 and Swiss Andreas Notter on April 18.

Military pressure seems to have played a part, especially in terms of limiting the Abu Sayyaf bandits? scope of operation. But we await a fuller inquiry into the role calibrated military offensives played. Negotiations were a key part; the participation of local officials with their ears to the ground may have proved essential. But the supposed ?prisoner swap,? with the government trading the two wives of Abu Sayyaf leader Albader Parad expediently arrested at a military checkpoint a few days ago, for Vagni, needs to be examined closely.

The ?strategy? has civil-rights implications not only for relatives of Abu Sayyaf members, but for any citizen of the republic. It may have worked?again, the details need to be explained?but we should beware of the consequences of expedience.