THE latest Senate saga validated what I have been saying all along: The DDS, or the Duterte diehard supporters or fanatics, are simply all noise and no muscle, all bark and no bite, however you put it.
The funny thing is Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano and his fellow senators who joined him may have been lured into hiding the DDS skirt, only to realize later it was no shield after all.
From May 11, a sprinkling of DDS camped in the Senate vicinity intending to protect the Cayetano bloc which assumed the Senate leadership after they slipped fugitive Sen. Ronald dela Rosa inside the plenary to secure the 13 votes required by the Constitution to seize the Senate presidency from Sen. Vicente Sotto III.
But as days passed, Cayetano’s colleagues slowly realized the sad reality: They could not muster enough support to keep them in power — in the Senate at least.
When Sen. Jinggoy Estrada was arrested inside the premises, these DDS supporters who had encamped themselves within the Senate vicinity could not even lift a finger to try to prevent the senator’s arrest.
From that moment on, it dawned on the Cayetano bloc that they were no longer in control of the Senate — the alliance was collapsing.
It was then that rumors began circulating that some members of the Cayetano bloc were considering defecting to the then-minority group. First to fall was Sen. Francis Escudero, which gave rise to the Quorum of 12. Escudero attended the last day of session on June 3 which declared all positions vacant and elected officers excluding the Senate president.
However, even if there is a jurisprudence on this matter and the fact, Cayetano himself had participated in a Senate session with a Quorum of 12, the former Senate president refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of the June 3 session, even calling for a Senate Blue Ribbon hearing even after they had been stripped of their position and elevating the issue to the Supreme Court a day before the special session called for by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on June 17.
Cayetano even exerted a last-ditch effort to apparently talk Sen. Joel Villanueva out of attending the special session which the latter turned down.
For the nth time, he resorted to his social media broadcast which has been his platform since the start of the month when he began losing control of the Senate and announced he was conceding. Again, he used the social media where the DDS is at its noisiest hoping to drum up support. And again he failed.
I have been saying this ever since. The DDS do not enjoy the massive popular support they claim. Yes, Rodrigo Duterte won in 2016, but where exactly did his votes come from considering he was new to the national political scenery?
From 2010, the Marcos supporters have been slowly coming out, showing their support for the would-be president. In the 2010 senatorial race, BBM got 10 million votes. In the 2016 vice presidential elections, assuming he was not cheated, he still got 14 million votes, showing a 4 million increase from 2010.
Dissecting his 14 million votes, and assuming again that the late Miriam Defensor-Santiago’s 1.5 million votes were part of that 14 million, we still have 12.5 million votes to account for. Who did these 12.5 million voters put on their ballots? Not Mar Roxas, nor Jojo Binay or even Grace Poe as they are perceived to be extensions of the Yellows.
The most logical answer would be Duterte.
In the 2022 elections, BBM got 31,104,175 votes, while Sara garnered 31,561,948 votes for a difference of 457,773 votes, which they interpret as Sara having more supporters than BBM.
But of course, it was expected: as BBM supporters heeded their candidate’s call for unity, the pure DDS abandoned their standard-bearer and actively campaigned against him.
If the Dutertes really enjoy that massive support, how can they explain this? In August 2024, the police, led by then-general Nicolas Torre III literally dug Duterte’s spiritual adviser Pastor Apollo Quiboloy for 16 days right in their own turf in Davao City.
On March 11, 2025, Duterte was arrested around 10 a.m. that day, and it took another 13 hours before he was flown out of the country. There was no mass uprising, even though his allies were again calling for people power.
On Sept. 21, 2025, the DDS Universe claimed BBM was on his way out. They even paraded Orly Guteza, who pointed to BBM as a recipient of billions of pesos concealed in several “maletas,” hoping to ignite the people’s fury against the president in the Trillion Peso March.
On the eve of the three-day Iglesia Ni Cristo rally last November, a video of former congressman Elizaldy “Zaldy” Co, albeit suspected of being artificial intelligence-produced, surfaced again pointing to BBM as a recipient of billions of pesos in kickbacks from the ghost flood control projects which he himself exposed. The three-day rally was called off after the second day after failing to gather the target participants.
On Feb. 22 this year, hours before the confirmation of charges against Duterte, and three days before the People Power anniversary, they came out with the 18 Marines soldiers-turned-18 brave ones-turned-18 kargador-turned-18 marites (and the list goes on). Again, this failed to gain traction as the inconsistencies in their statements were exposed.
On all occasions, the DDS were projecting a takeover by Vice President Sara Duterte. And on all occasions, they failed.
Despite all this, Cayetano was still lured by the noise of the DDS, hoping their noise would catapult him to power.
But as I have said, they are all noise and no muscle. Just like a strike of thunder: deafening but empty.