Freed aid worker Esperancita Hupida was finally reunited with her eight-yearold daughter in Zamboanga City, where she was brought after she was released by her kidnappers early Thursday in Basilan province.

Hupida arrived at the headquarters of the Naval Forces Western Mindanao-Combined headquarters in Zamboanga city past 7 a.m. She was transported from Basilan through a Philippine Navy speed boat.

When finally allowed to face the media, Hupida passed through everybody and ran to her eight-year-old daughter Angel, who was waiting for her in a sofa with husband, Nestor.

"I really missed mom," Hupida's daughter said when asked for a reaction by media.

Hupida was released by her captors to her husband at the boundary of Al-Bharka and Tipo-Tipo towns in Basilan around 2:15 a.m.

Also at the release site were Basilan Vice-Governor Al-Rasheed Sakalahul and Father Angel Calvo, president of the Nagdilaab Foundation Inc.

Asked if he will allow Hupida, Espie to people close to her, to return and continue his aid work in Basilan, Nestor said he had not discussed the matter with his wife.

'Experience was liberating'

At the press conference, Hupida said she was "happy" and her 45 days in the hands of her kidnappers was "really liberating."

She said her captors were mostly young and "barely talked to her."

Esperancita Hupida with daughter Angel in Zamboanga City

"I was treated fairly. I was fed properly, but I would like to think that my release was God's providence" she added.

Hupida said the most frightening experience in the hands of her kidnappers was when they threatened to cut her fingers if her family fails to deliver a P2-million ransom.

"I was really afraid of that because they really looked serious about the threat," she said.

Calvo said Hupida remains the "talkative" person he knows. He said he would treasure the feeling of being able to meet Hupida at the undisclosed release site.

"I could not describe the feeling. When I embraced her for the first time after she was kidnapped, I said, 'Oh, finally!'" the priest said.

‘Ransom paid’

The priest earlier disclosed that "a considerable amount of money" was given to the kidnappers in exchange of Hupida's freedom. He also described the aid worker as "surprisingly in good condition and in good health."

The priest and vice-governor, meanwhile, said there were still no words from the kidnappers about the status of the other kidnapped aid worker, Millet Mendoza of Quezon City.

Sakalahul said that the two aid workers were separated by their kidnappers at least four days after they were abducted in Tipo-Tipo last September 15.

The vice-governor earlier said Mendoza had contacted members of the Basilan Crisis Management Committee through phone last week.

He said he is optimistic that Mendoza will be released soon as he revealed the Moro Islamic Liberation Front has brokered a negotiation with the aid worker's abductors.