MANILA, Philippines— Less than 24 hours after undergoing a coronary angioplasty to unclog two blood vessels, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales Wednesday declared that he was not on sick leave and was just “absent,” and would be back at his desk in five days.

“I’m a new person, healthier than before and I will be back at work on Monday,” said a quite cheerful Gonzales who is recovering at the St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City.

Gonzales said his senior deputy, Milo Ibrado, would be in charge during his absence.

Press Secretary Jesus Dureza said that it will indeed be Ibrado, “the next person in line,” who will take over from Gonzales, effectively shutting down the possibility that Luis “Chavit” Singson, the newly appointed deputy national security adviser, would take over Gonzales’ functions.

The 61-year-old Gonzales said he had been feeling unwell for some time. He confirmed that he had undergone an angioplasty, three years after doctors found that he had a heart condition.

Heart condition

An angioplasty is a medical procedure to restore blood flow in a narrowed or blocked blood vessel in the heart.

In September 2005, Gonzales was rushed to the hospital when his blood pressure rose abruptly during a Senate blue ribbon committee hearing on the controversial Venable lobby contract. At the time, doctors considered performing an angioplasty.

Gonzales said that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had called him early Wednesday from Quirino province.

“Don’t worry too much,” he quoted the President as telling him when he told her that his doctor only required that he stay in the hospital for two days. He will leave the hospital on Friday.

Ms Arroyo told him, “that’s good.”

Gonzales said he was all set to go to Malaysia Wednesday to head the government team that Ms Arroyo sent to officially notify Kuala Lumpur of the government’s new peace policy in dealing with the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

He was to have headed the mission that includes Hermogenes Esperon Jr., the presidential adviser on the peace process, National Intelligence Coordinating Agency Director General Pedro Cabuay and Foreign Undersecretary Rafael Seguis. The group, minus Gonzales, left for Kuala Lumpur Wednesday.

Gonzales said that he had gone to see his doctor last Sept. 5 because he had chest pains and was feeling tired all the time.

4 blocked veins

On the eve of the mission’s departure for Kuala Lumpur last Tuesday, he received a phone call from his doctor to proceed to the hospital for an angiogram, a test to examine the blood vessels.

During the Cabinet security cluster meeting last Tuesday, Gonzales informed the President that his doctor told him he had to have the angiogram that day and that he had been advised against going on the trip to Malaysia.

From the Palace, he went to the hospital where doctors found that he had four blocked veins. The doctors then proceeded to perform angioplasty on two of the blocked veins.

Gonzales said he just needed to take medication to clear the two other blocked veins.

The operation started at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday and lasted for three hours, said Gonzales.

By 1 p.m. Wednesday, Gonzales had been transferred to a regular hospital room following an overnight stay at the intensive care unit.

“So I’m okay. My doctor said I will be normal by Monday ... I can work on Monday,” he said happily.

Just absent

Gonzales stressed that he was just “absent” from work and not on sick leave, and that he had designated Ibrado as officer in charge during his absence.

In Malacañang, Dureza confirmed that Ibrado was the man of the moment, “the next person in line.”

And while he has not seen any official papers, Dureza said he assumed that Gonzales was on sick leave.

“If you’re unable to perform the necessary functions, you’ll have to be on leave,” he said.

Dureza said he talked to Gonzales at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday and that the latter had told him that he had undergone an angioplasty to have “two valves cleared.”

“He is well. I’m sure he will recover very soon,” he said.

Main purpose

The press secretary said Gonzales was indeed scheduled to leave for Malaysia with the members of the mission as a “special envoy” of the President.

The team was to meet with Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi to officially notify Kuala Lumpur, which has been brokering the peace negotiations with the MILF, that the government would not be signing the proposed memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain.

Dureza said the team will be handing to Badawi a letter from the President. The letter essentially contained what the team members would be conveying personally to the prime minister, he said.

“I think the main purpose is first to thank them [the Malaysians] for their long support for the peace process in Mindanao and second, to inform them of the present status of the talks,” he said.

Refocusing peace talks

The President announced last month that the government was refocusing the peace talks, from holding dialogues with armed groups to dialogues with communities in Mindanao. She said the government would only engage in talks with armed groups in the context of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration, or DDR.