He had written himself off so many times, but it seems like the nation has not heard the last of former President Rodrigo Duterte.

The aging political superstar turned back the clock when he turned in a masterful performance before the Senate, arousing a people that had started to give in to the incompetent, corrupt, and abusive Marcos administration, which is a more vicious version of the first.

When he agreed to appear before the Senate on Monday, many feared that FPRRD had unknowingly walked into an ambush. The stage had been set by the lynch mobs masquerading as hearings, obviously to condition the minds of Filipinos that the country’s most popular President in history was, in fact, the monster that they had pictured him to be during the 2016 campaign.

It was a lousy script that was bound to fail. Whoever wrote it arrogantly insisted that the anti-Duterte narrative that Filipinos rejected in 2016 would now be acceptable. If they expected a different result from an administration whose gross incompetence was only recently exposed by the spate of calamities, something is wrong with their minds.

The masses have unfairly received flak from the elites and self-righteous intellectuals for casually selling their votes during elections while turning a blind eye to irregularities that have reduced elections to a mere formality. You can accuse them of many things, but ignorance of what makes life in this country a little less miserable is not one of them.

This was why they defied the status quo in 2016 and overwhelmingly elected FPRRD over the establishment's preferred bets. They watched his back all throughout his six-year term and sadly sent him off with the highest approval rating ever for an outgoing President.

Feeling betrayed over the treatment he, his family, and close allies had received from BBM, his wife, and Speaker Martin Romualdez, the masses suffered in silence. Deep within, they kept alive flickering hopes that FPRRD would be given his just due for what he had done for them.

FPRRD knew this and waited for the right moment to strike. When the Senate had turned into a venue for the reunion of drug personalities and their protectors, and Congress had bullied the unsung heroes of his war on drugs, FPRRD knew it was time.

When the Senate invitation reached him, FPRRD knew this was the opportunity he had been waiting for. For one who had spent his entire political life hunting criminals and scoundrels, he knew he was up to the challenge.

There was no question he was not prepared for. True, there were times when he seemed tentative, but those were predatory instincts to prepare for the killer strikes. It was too late when they realized that the hunted was actually the hunter. The trap that they thought they had laid out for him was the grave he wanted them to dig with their own hands.

There was no doubt about the outcome.

The gallery erupted into spontaneous applause when it was over. Outside the Senate, his supporters greeted him with cheers and clapping. It was a scene reminiscent of those heady days in 2016. The political rock star has not lost his touch and appeal. If the viewership of the hearing and the angry comments are any indication, it looks like he has won over even many of those who hated him in the past.

It is too early to speculate about the regime change that more and more people are talking about. 2028 is still more than three years away. But what happened at the Senate today is a game changer, anyway you look at it. And the Marcos administration has no one else to blame but itself for refusing to learn from the lessons of history.

“We often give our rivals the means of our own destruction,” said Aesop’s fables in the 6th century BC.

This one’s no fable: FPRRD, the Phoenix, is up and about.