Two of his fellow captives, Canadians John Ridsel and Robert.
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The Abu Sayyaf freed Sekkingstad on Saturday, handing him over to another Muslim rebel group which is engaged in peace talks with the government and at whose camp he spent the night.
Sekkingstad, then aged 56, was abducted in September 2015 from the high-end Philippine tourist resort which he managed and was taken to Jolo by the Abu Sayyaf.
He also thanked Mr Duterte.
Sekkingstad was released to the MNLF, which turned him over to Dureza and Tan on Sunday afternoon.
The Philippine military insists the release of the kidnap victims was a result of the ongoing intensified military operations against the Abu Sayyaf, with the assistance of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), one of the two major Muslim rebel groups based in the south of the mainly Catholic nation.
In what was billed as a “slip of the tongue”, Duterte himself told reporters in Davao City that associates of Sekkingstad had raised at least $1 million for his release when informed of another beheading.
Amid the offensive against them, the Abu Sayyaf had freed three Indonesian nationals who were taken from a Malaysian fishing vessel near the east coast Lahad Datu district on July 9.
A Norwegian former hostage on Sunday described his psychological torture as he heard his friends being beheaded by Islamic militants during a year-long captivity in the southern Philippines.
Sekkingstad, one of the four people captured by the bandit group in Samal a year ago, was released around 2 p.m. on Saturday.
“It was devastating”, the visibly shaken Norwegian said.
Kjartan Sekkingstad was freed in Patikul town in Sulu province and was eventually secured by rebels from the larger Moro National Liberation Front, which has a signed a peace deal with the government and helped negotiate his release, officials said.
On Saturday, Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad was freed after an alleged ransom of P30 million delivered to the Abu Sayyaf.
Sekkingstad, 56, said after his release he was treated “like a slave” by the group, which is linked to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS).
After the militants decapitated Ridsdel, Sekkingstad was threatened by the militants, who repeatedly told him, “You’re next”.
However, a spokesman for the Abu Sayyaf was quoted in a local newspaper yesterday as saying the group received 30 million pesos for the Norwegian.
The government of the Philippines said it did not pay the group and was unaware of any payment made by other parties.
Mr. Duterte’s communications secretary, Martin M. Andanar, said in Manila that “the government maintains the no-ransom policy”.
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Reports say it is a loose network of militants formed in the 1990s with seed money from Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network.
