WHEN the doors open, the chatter stops, and the people rise as a body. There is silence as he strides up to the dais, grave-faced and sober-eyed. In this temple he is high priest, his is the way, the truth, and the light. He does not understand, however, that they do not rise only because he is Reynato Puno, champion of human rights, hero of the press, the anointed son of Holy Mother Church. They stand because of the dark robe that falls in heavy folds to his feet, because of the gavel he carries, because of the soaring ceilings, because of the compulsion of decades of other men and women rising to the idea of a judge, the man of unimpeachable character who has risen above all men to preside as the Chief Justice.

To play judge and jury does not only require decisions made and signed to be effective. It requires that these decisions be believed, held as true by the majority, because these are decisions made and signed by the highest court in the land. It is why the court must be known for its lack of biases, its independence from opinion, suggestion and ambition, its absolute dedication to the rule of law. To become Chief Justice, to accept that heavy weight of responsibility, is to also accept that he is no longer just a man, he is the law made flesh, a living, breathing representative of justice, and as such is not permitted the personal whims and private follies of any man. After all, in a battle for perception, every chink in that man?s character is an assault on the law he upholds.

Let me take you to the court of this man we call chief justice, the gentleman who smiled at suggestions that he abandon his post as justice. ?I must consult my advisers,? he says, his grandchildren of three and four and seven. How whimsical, some said. How charming, said others, the wisest man in the land bowing to three tots in a decision that will affect the fate of the nation. Others saw it for what it was not. It was not an outright refusal, as it should have been. It was not a reproof to those who dared assault the system he was meant to protect from even the echoes of this sort of rumor. It was an invitation?ask me, convince me, keep my name on the national headline. It was that same coyness that began the 2 million signature drive to ?convince? Chief Justice Reynato Puno to run for the presidency, that gave credence to Sen. Ping Lacson?s posturing as a martyr willing to give up ambition for a higher cause, that had four-year-old party Ang Kapatiran raising their voices in hope and prayer.

More ominous is this: that this symbol of justice, of law and order, announced to all who would listen that the people should not pin their hopes on the legal system?the one bulwark at a time when there is little left to believe in?but instead pin their hopes on a moral system, on some vague notion of a moral revolution.

He talks about ?character,? as ?who we are when no one is watching.? Who is this man, when nobody watched? He is the man who represented the Marcos government in the martial law years with Marcos? solicitor general Estelito Mendoza, his mentor. He is the man who defended the 1973 constitution that extended the term of Ferdinand Marcos. He acted as both solicitor general and minister of justice in Mendoza?s stead at a time when many were lost and killed in the same fashion that those he stands for now were lost and killed. He is the man who has failed to inhibit himself repeatedly in cases involving his friends, including decisions that favored his erstwhile mentor. And he was conveniently on leave during the momentous decisions on the CPR (calibrated preemptive response), Proclamation 1017, and RA 464.

He said, in one of his many public appearances, that there are too many laws. He said that the problem is that there is a lack of morality.

Now he says he will not run, after shaking hands with activist priest Robert Reyes and listening to his appeals, after his long lectures on morality and claims to great character. He may be a good man, a moral man. But we do not need a man, moral or otherwise, or at least, moral by the standards of Puno himself. What we need is a judge of men, not one who has made himself so open to judgment.

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Email: pat.evangelista@gmail.com