When some prominent personalities tried to entice Chief Justice Reynato Puno to quit the judiciary and join the presidential race, my instant thinking was that these proponents were fantasizing a utopian but illusory scenario and should be awakened from their daydream. I was aghast at the front-page treatment accorded to their outlandish proposition, totally disproportionate to its real news value given the hard realities of politics in this country.

I do not see any logic behind the idea of the head of the judiciary performing his tasks splendidly only to be told to abandon his job in favor of joining politics. Like what happened to the late Chief Justice Marcelo Fernan, a highly respected jurist, who was prevailed upon by strategists, idealists, pseudo-kingmakers, hustlers and turncoats to cut short his tenure in the highest tribunal, succumbing to their blandishment that he was the type of trustworthy and uncorrupted leader, the alternative to the trapo that the nation was craving and waiting for. Eventually, his presidential bid in the 1992 election was found by his backers and drumbeaters to be unviable and many of them dropped him like an unwanted commodity. In a pathetic move, he was forced to slide down to the vice presidential slot but still— unfortunately—did not win.

And so, when the incumbent Chief Justice reached a final decision to stay where he is and thumbed down the offer of the advocates of the Puno for President Movement, I heaved a sigh of relief.  It’s good that Puno quelled a hare-brained undertaking as quickly as it surfaced.

As acknowledged by people who know him well, Puno belongs to the rare breed of individuals who remain cool, sober and collected amidst the most trying circumstances. Someone who is spotlessly clean, unanimously admired by his peers and who possesses genuine humility on top of his remarkable wisdom and integrity. The most brazen underhanded tactics won’t work against him because he sees the ploy for what it is.

The overwhelming sentiment of our countrymen is that politics should be left to the “politicos.” Likewise, achievers in other fields who gain recognition should not be misled into straying into politics when their hearts are not in it and where they run the risk of becoming square peg in a round hole. Those who ignore this piece of advice are often met with a mixture of cynicism and disdain, as best demonstrated by our “People’s Champion,” Manny Pacquiao. “Manny should not allow himself to be destroyed by politics,” is an oft-repeated mantra recited until today.

Many pundits have speculated that this is precisely the motive behind the seemingly orchestrated moves involving Chief Justice Puno.  The circumstances surrounding the controversy over the disqualification case against Negros Oriental Rep. Jocelyn Limkaichong, sparked by the leakage of documents from the Supreme Court, are just too plain ludicrous to have happened spontaneously. There had to be a hand behind that maneuver.  How else would you explain the illogical amount of attention given to Puno’s purported offense?  

Fourteen associate justices of the bench signed a draft resolution supposedly affirming a decision of the Commission on Elections that Congresswoman Limkaichong was not a natural-born Filipino but a Chinese citizen, and therefore not qualified to represent the first district of Negros Oriental. Puno, however, did not sign and promulgate the resolution. This alleged serious lapse on the part of the Chief Justice opened up a Pandora’s box, leading all the way to talks of impeachment.  And how did the threat of impeachment originate and become the hottest news for days?  At the very core, our civil liberty gives us the right to examine and carefully deliberate upon any legal document before affixing our signature on it. I can only imagine how much this is magnified for the highest judicial official of the land.

If anything, this only proves that Chief Justice Puno is not swayed by peer pressure.  No one, certainly not any concerned citizen, can force a responsible magistrate to sign anything simply by whining that “everyone signed it, why didn’t you?”

Morever, as SC spokesman Midas Marquez explained, a decision is legally considered a draft unless it is officially promulgated. Even in a situation in which all the justices have signed a resolution, that document does not become final until it promulgated. This gives the justices leeway to change their mind if additional facts or evidence are presented. As it is, according to Marquez, the decision not to promulgate and release the resolution on the Limkaichong case was made collectively by all the members of the high tribunal and not by the Chief Justice alone.

Notwithstanding the flimsiness of the accusation against him, rumors of impeachment against the Chief Justice gained a little ground.  Undoubtedly, the orchestrators of this scheme were hoping that Puno would lose his temper, and the controversy would have worsened.  How they could have underestimated a man of such caliber is anybody’s guess.

True to form, the Chief Justice maintained his dignity and composure, in the face of the lack of merit in the allegations against him. Colleagues in the judiciary, friends and sympathizers rushed to his defense.

Seeing the patent futility of their first assault, it seems the schemers shifted to Plan B. “If we can’t convince the people that Puno has done wrong, then let’s peddle the yarn that Puno is running for president,” they must have told themselves. That a sneaky way of damaging his credibility. All of a sudden, talks of impeaching the supposedly compromised Chief Justice vanished into thin air. In a dramatic turnaround, Puno was being touted as the one capable of leading the republic from moral decadence and endless political turmoil. A group called “Chief Justice Puno for President Movement” sprang overnight, vowing to launch a signature campaign to convince him to run.

Unfortunately for these schemers, Puno has spurned their overture after seeing through the dubious motive behind it. “Leave the judiciary out of the political scene.  It will not do the judiciary any good,” he declared.  Moreover, he said his advisers had already decided against his running, since he has a prior commitment to them once he retires in 2010. “My advisers are my grandchildren. I already made a commitment to them that I would bring them to and fetch them from school upon my retirement,” he averred.

Once again, in his own classy way, the Chief Justice has defused this politicking time bomb.