Santa Banana, more and more presidential and senatorial hopefuls are coming out of the woodwork.

Aside from the known aspirants? former Senate President Manny Villar, Senators Mar Roxas, Loren Legarda, Chiz Escudero and Ping Lacson, and of course, Makati Mayor Jojo Binay and MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando, now Senator Bong Revilla also wants to be President. There?s also the threat of Erap to run for President if the opposition cannot unite under one candidate.

Well, in this country, anybody is free to make a fool of himself.

My gulay, even detained Magdalo Chief Brig. Gen. Danny Lim now wants to be senator, perhaps inspired by his fellow detained rebel Antonio Trillanes who won a Senate seat in 2007.

Even whistle-blowers, like the son of ousted Speaker Jose de Venecia, Joey de Venecia, aspire to be senators thinking that their days of glory and fame, thanks to media that feasted on them, would endear them to the people.

There?s the adopted daughter of the late movie icon and defeated presidential aspirant Fernando Poe Jr., who thinks that the name Poe is a ticket to the Senate.

I can go on and on with others who want to make fools of themselves.

***

When Senator Ping Lacson came out with an endorsement of Chief Justice Reynato Puno as President, and stated that he would even be willing to become Puno?s vice presidential candidate and act as his campaign manager, I said to myself, ?Ping must really hate Puno.?

First of all, the Chief Justice must now resign from the Supreme Court to be able to muster a grassroots machinery as others aspiring to be President have done years ago.

Will Puno sacrifice his position just because there are those who think that he?s God?s gift to the Philippines carrying the banner of ?moral force? atop a white horse ala Joan of Arc?

Besides, if he is ever tempted to be listed to those who dream of ?moral revolution? to change the country and make it rise above the quagmire of corruption, Puno?s moral ascendancy will go down the drain since the judiciary must never get down to the level of politics as we know it.

Santa Banana, Nandy Pacheco?s ?Ang Kapatiran? now wants to adopt him since ?Ang Kapatiran? is supposedly ?God-centered.? That, to me, is a formula for failure after seeing what happened to Nandy?s political adventure of fighting the windmills in 2004.

Puno should recall what happened to another Chief Justice?the late Celing Fernan, who listened to importunings that he could become President. Recall that Fernan resigned from his lofty position in Mount Olympus as Chief Justice only to run as the vice president of the late Speaker Ramon Mitra, and lost to Erap Estrada in 1992. They say that those who can?t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Chief Justice Puno must be mindful of lessons from the past.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, who knows what it takes to run for President, said it only too well that while Puno is a good presidential material, it is already too late for him since he would need the local support of people in the local level, which Puno certainly is devoid of.

Besides, what party will carry him, and what money will he use, knowing full well that to run for president and be given at least a chance of winning, one must have no less than P5 billion?

Puno is far from being Don Quixote fighting the windmills.

***

I have the highest respect for Puno as Chief Justice. But, for him to run for the presidency would diminish my respect and admiration for the man since he can?t be that foolhardy not to realize what it takes to be a presidential candidate.

Puno?s predecessor, retired Chief Justice Art Panganiban, said it too well amount the man, that Puno is ?like a trained surgeon. He uses his pen with razor-like precision to separate the excise fabrication from truth and pretension from reality. In the process, he gives life to populist causes and libertarian ideals. Daring, gutsy and erudite, he often weights lonely battles against conventional wisdom with stirring dissents and insightful opinion.? To which I may add, Puno?s legacy as a Chief Justice is unmatched. Will Puno sacrifice that for Malaca?ang, without even an assurance he?ll make it?

At this point, I also recall that do-gooders like the late former Senators Raul Manglapus and Manny Manahan sought the presidency and vice presidency in 1959 carrying the Ateneo banner for a ?moral revolution? under their Progressive Party. They were also the darling of media that hailed them as the future of the republic.

But, look what happened? They lost miserably.

I am all for Puno?s ?moral force? to change our value and priorities. But, I also know what it takes to become President in our kind of politics and system of government.

A ?moral revolution? led by ?moral forces? and bandied around is Utopia, which is an impossibility so long as man is man, and politics is the kind of politics we have.

***

On another dimension, as a lawyer, I find it difficult to understand when the Supreme Court came out with a resolution en banc that the ponencia of retired Justice Ruben Reyes on the disqualification of Negros Oriental Rep. Jocelyn Limkaitchong ?lacked doctrinal value.? Thus, it was incumbent on Chief Justice Puno to withhold the promulgation of the case since the majority of the justices concurred ?only on the results.?

I understand the need for the Supreme Court justices to comply with the constitutional provisions that ?any member who took no part, or dissented from a decision or resolution must state the reason...? and that ?no decision shall be rendered by any court without expressing therein clearly and distinctly the facts and the law on which it is based.? In other words, there must be basis in law that can serve as precedents in all Supreme Court decisions.

But, while I agree with the constitutional mandate, I cannot find logic or reason why the concurrence ?only on the result? does not prescribe ?doctrinal value? since the ponencia must have stated reasons for this ruling to which the majority concurred with the result.

Take the case of an elevation of a lower court decision to the Supreme Court whether or not an accused must be meted out capital punishment. If the high court affirms the ruling of the lower court, doesn?t that have ?doctrinal value??

In other words, the Supreme Court appeared like splitting hairs and equivocating about the ruling disqualifying Limkaichong. For what reasons, I don?t know.

But, that?s how it is in the Supreme Court. Right or wrong, what the tribunal says, that?s the law. They are like the gods of Mount Olympus, and we mortals must submit.

***

Another aspect of the Supreme Court imbroglio I cannot comprehend is why one Louis Biraogo, who filed the disqualification case against Limkaichong, is pressing the Chief Justice to release the draft of the decision in the light of what I stated that it?s only a draft and such a draft cannot be promulgated. As we know, an unpromulgated decision remains just that?a piece of paper.

Perhaps to benefit the Parases, who lost to Limkaichong, is it true that Biraogo is even accusing Puno of trying to convince other members of the high court to change their votes?

By the way, how are the proceedings for holding Biraogo for contempt of court going? In a resolution released last December, Biraogo was directed to show cause why he should not be held in contempt for his statements and for releasing that controversial draft ponencia of the retired justice. My gulay, just how he got hold of it is another story.

***

Biraogo has ostentatiously drawn attention to himself by announcing that a brown envelope was delivered to his Bi?an residence in early October 2008. He claimed that the envelope contained a letter and some documents, supposedly sent by a concerned SC employee. No name of sender, no return address, no contact number. Call me a cynic, but a concerned SC employed would know his or her constitutional and legal duty to keep the proceedings of the tribunal confidential until such a time that promulgation is done.

This is the reason why there?s a need for the tribunal to find the culprit or culprits or even a justice responsible, if that?s the case. For who else could leak that document?