Days after his masterful appearance before the Senate, former President Rodrigo Duterte remains the nation’s hottest topic.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. probably thought the hearing would be the figurative last rites for FPRRD, but the old fox turned the tables instead. In one fell swoop, the tormentors found themselves on the defensive.

Just hours after PRRD left the scene of his latest conquest, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin and Justice Secretary Crispin Remulla hastily issuedstatements contradicting the former’s declaration that the peace and order situation had deteriorated under his successor.

Nice try, but Bersamin and Remulla succeeded only in fanning the flames against BBM. Filipinos don’t need anybody, much less the functionaries of a discredited leader, to tell them what is peaceful or not. They were probably hoping it was music to BBM's ears, but it was fuel to the fire that is the people’s sentiments.

Senate President Francis Escudero tried a different tact: a mild rebuke to FPRRD, or more accurately, of his decorum while inside the halls of the Senate. He has a point, but since when has it mattered to angry, discontented, and impatient people? If it accomplished anything, it was to confirm Escudero’s blind loyalty to Malacañang.

FPRRD never tempered his language throughout his six-year term, and the masses loved him more for it. As long as there is peace and security in the neighborhood and the government functions efficiently, they don’t care less about the President’s choice of words.

What good is a head of state with an English accent if the bad guys own the streets when his much-ballyhooed flood control programs are virtually invisible, and who is clueless about responding to natural calamities?

Let’s not even talk about the P20 per kilo rice promo, which is the biggest scam, and the much-applauded banning of the POGO that never was.

And lest people forget or be distracted, the call for BBM’s hair follicle drug test remains unanswered, a deafening silence that can be taken as an admission in itself.

FPRRD read the conditions well and knew the situation was ripe for the picking. When his Senate appearance was over, the BBM think-tanks didn’t even know what hit them.

Perhaps to instill order in their ranks and in one last attempt to strike fear, if not on FPRRD but perhaps on his followers, press statements issued by Marcos’ allies called for the filing of cases against the political rock star in his war on drugs during his term.

Some people just never learn, or don’t stop until it’s too late. In the mad rush to deny

FPRRD the celebration for that masterful Senate appearance, BBM’s rah-rah boys now want to rush FPRRD’s arrest.

The calls to arrest FPRRD have forced BBM into a no-win situation. If they don’t arrest him, FPRRD’s myth grows bigger. But if anything happens to the man who has sacrificed so much to make the country peaceful, it will be BBM’s biggest mistake that he will regret for the rest of his life.

The fabled military genius Sun-Tzu once provided an intriguing doctrine that gives us a different set of lensesthrough which to view the current situation.

“He whom the ancients called an expert in battle gained victory where victory was easily gained. Thus, the battle of the expert is never an exceptional victory, nor does it win him a reputation for wisdom or credit for courage. His victories in battle are unerring. Unerring means that he acts where victory is certain, and conquers an enemy that already lost.”

The headless snake may still wreak havoc, but it is only a matter of time before it rests permanently. No one can tell how much damage it may inflict. One thing is sure: the enemy has already lost.

As Vice President Sara Duterte put it in so many words, there is no more number 1. That’s another word for a headless snake.