The populist framework comes to mind, as we are about to elect the game show host and comedian Willie Revillame to the Senate.

Independence. That is one qualification of precedence prescribed by law, the RA 6770 or the Ombudsman Act of 1989, in considering appointments to the position of Ombudsman and the deputies. That law’s Section 5 insists on “persons of recognized probity and independence.”

The MMFF’s identity is bound to being ideologically in sync with government, propping-up as it did Marcos Sr.’s Bagong Lipunan against the backdrop of Martial Law. That 49 years after we are back to the same promise of a Bagong Pilipinas, under Marcos’s son Bongbong, and that the MMFF continues to be embroiled in controversy borne of its lack of credibility, is no surprise.