Ex-DOJ chief Raul Gonzalez dies

MANILA, Philippines — Former Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez died from multiple organ failure while confined at the National Kidney Transplant Institute in Quezon City Sunday night.

Reports said Gonzalez, who has been confined at the NKTI since Friday, passed away around 10:45 p.m. He was 83.

Gonzalez, who also served as Iloilo congressman from 1995 to 2004, was the justice secretary during the time of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Gonzalez entered government service as legal assistant to the governor of  Iloilo in 1960, and became senior committee in the Senate before the decade ended.

He legally fought against the martial rule of strongman Ferdinand Marcos through several historically significant petitions before the Supreme Court. In 1989, he was suspended by the high court for supposed ignorance in legal matters, but he was reappointed in 1993 and went on to win the congressional seat of Iloilo City.

Gonzalez was made justice secretary by Arroyo in 2004.