Bishop Nilo Tayag, convenor of the Ayaw sa Trapo said at the weekly Kapihan sa Sulo media forum that his group aims to gather at least two million signatures in the campaign they call "Chief Justice Puno for President Movement." Can’t they even think of anything new? What has brought us our criminal presidents has not been that no one wanted them to be president but that they also had an overwhelming desire to be one even when all they knew about the job was how to preen and pose for posterity.

Basically, what makes for a bad president is someone who is content to be one, who regards making himself president as his main achievement. In cases like these, it is downhill for the country from then on. In the case of a reluctant president, who is forced to go for the position and whose crowning glory is the day of his installation, it is the people who made him president (and who will be working in the presidency) who then concentrate on how to improve not the country but their personal wealth.

Tayag, former political prisoner and former Marcos official, is currently an official of the Iglesia Catolica Filipina Independiente or the Aglipayan church.

He said his group has decided to throw its support behind Puno as they believe the chief magistrate possesses "moral integrity" which they said is absent in most politicians who are currently in office. Moral integrity? That is the first that goes out the window the day after the election, beginning with the first persons that the president-elect meets.

Says Nilo: "We are not looking for someone who is street smart or has vast knowledge of the executive."

But of course we are. That is the most important thing. If the newly elected leader cannot lead, except by bribery or by skullduggery, the country goes to the usual dogs where we have always gone the day after elections. Adds Tayag: "What we are looking for in a leader is his moral integrity, which is not present in a politics without conscience and principle."

We must begin with voters whose love of country will not allow it to be ruled by someone whose best qualities are those more befitting to movie stars, entertainers and product endorsers who have proven themselves at nothing more than at preening, prettying up and looking good. The choice that voters make on election day could well be the most important they have ever made in their lives with so much at stake for the country. Yet, this choice has been reduced to a popularity contest in that we choose according to perceived popularity (as certified by surveys that can be bought tailor-fitted from the professional pulse-takers).

Choosing a good president does not begin with endorsements but a sea change in how we elect our leaders. We need to get away from electing according to set criteria that are always tailored to particular candidates.

According to Tayag, Puno passes the "Four Cs" that his group has set as criteria for a good president: "commitment, cleanliness, competence and Christianity."

The fact alone that the only "C" that they capitalize is "Christianity" already tells us that the only thing to do about this group of political non-politicos is to follow the admonition of the Christ Himself: "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."

SC Spokesman Midas Marquez, who was present at the Sulo Kapihan, had a prepared statement presumably with the prior approval of the Chief Justice: "The Chief justice is very appreciative of these efforts, but we remain in our opposition. We would rather stay in the courts. We have so many things to do in the court. We already have plans in the court."

Marquez then allowed that the main plan for the moment is how to get out from under the threat of impeachment that could come from the chief Justice’s poor handling of an election case brought before his court in which all of the other 14 justices voted unanimously but which the CJ has still not proclaimed while he works on each of the other justices trying to change their vote. Anyone else in that compromising position would be suspected of being in the payroll of one of the litigants. It is a credit to Puno’s aura of religiosity that no one has dared to even suspect him of skullduggery yet!

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Atty. Allan Paguia, who used to be a law professor, was suspended as a lawyer and prevented from practicing his profession by the Supreme Court because as former President Joseph Estrada’s former counsel, the Court says that he insulted the Court’s integrity by challenging its thinking. Paguia questioned the basis for the Court’s declaring that Erap had resigned his position – clearly a fiction from a dream of one of the justices that found itself the basis for that important decision.

Allan says now that if the former president actually runs for office, he would be in violation of a provision of his pardon: "One provision under his conditional pardon is for him not to seek any political post – it’s basic in law that if an agreement’s condition is violated, there’s ground for rescinding it.

Is Allan correct?

Here is the pertinent text of the pardon:

"Whereas, this Administration has a policy of releasing inmates who have reached the age of seventy (70),

"Whereas, Joseph Ejercito Estrada has been under detention for six and a half years,

"Whereas, Joseph Ejercito Estrada has publicly committed to no longer seek any elective position or office,

"In view hereof and pursuant to the authority conferred upon me by the Constitution, I hereby grant executive clemency to Joseph Ejercito Estrada, convicted by the Sandiganbayan of plunder and imposed a penalty of reclusion perpetua. He is hereby restored to his civil and political rights."

Question: If Erap is "restored to his civil and political rights," how can he be prevented from his basic political right to run for any office? Or, does that second "whereas" count as a pre-condition?

Paguia says that Mrs. Arroyo can withdraw her pardon of Estrada "if warranted." And what would warrant such withdrawal?

According to Paguia, "the remission of punishment is vested solely on the President." Worse, Allan adds that her successor (if it is not Erap himself) could still take away that freedom after he wins that election where Erap ran.

Says Allan: "Officials come and go but the office granting pardon stays, so there’s continuity."