MANILA. Justice Secretary-on-leave Raul Gonzalez met with beat reporters of the Department of Justice (DOJ) for the first time yesterday since his release from hospital this week, and declared that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo wants him back at the helm of the agency.

Gonzales looked wan but mentally alert after undergoing kidney transplant at the National Kidney Institute (NKI).

His critics have long wanted him out of the DOJ after issuing alleged "tactless" statements on a number of issues. They considered his ailment as an opportunity for the President to ease him out of the department.

Gonzales went on sick leave in July after what he said at the time as "a recurrence of bleeding ulcers." A few days later, he attended a Cabinet meeting with a limp, which led President Arroyo to order him to check into a hospital.

In a repartee with reporters at his private residence, Gonzalez said he is ready to resume his job at the DOJ by December this year, adding that President Arroyo herself wanted him to return to the Department.

Solicitor-General Agnes Devanadera is concurrently the Acting DOJ Secretary. A major change during her tenure is her controversial recall of DOJ employees, mainly prosecutors, seconded to such DOJ agencies as the Bureau of Immigration.

To this, Gonzalez said that as Acting Secretary, Devanadera can implement changes, "and if these work even when I return, I shall retain them."

Gonzalez's public image is that of a loyal Cabinet member and an unabashed defender of the President. Despite his kidney ailment, which he never publicly acknowledged until the entry at the NKI, Gonzalez manned the DOJ like a workhorse. He said he is a workaholic because "my boss (Arroyo) is one such boss."

His transplanted kidney was donated by a long-time driver.

Though initially reluctant to have Gonzalez return to work so soon, his family finally give its blessings and "wished though that he will be aware to give time for himself," said his doctor-wife, Pacita.