In a moment charged with symbolism, Rodrigo Duterte faced off with members of the Philippine House of Representatives on November 13, bringing all his infamous bravado and threats to the hearing room. But this time, his strongman tactics fell flat, revealing just how fragile his once-dominant image has become. Duterte entered the hearing, hoping to out-bully his opponents and showcase his command, but he instead found himself tangled up in parliamentary procedures he hadn’t mastered, unmasked and stripped of his mystique.

The setting itself was telling. This was Congress, not a rally filled with loyal supporters. The lawmakers in the quad committee knew Duterte’s playbook and had no intention of letting him set the tone. Under the impartial guidance of Robert’s Rules of Order — the parliamentary procedures that level the playing field — Duterte’s tough-guy act was rendered useless. He couldn’t out-shout or intimidate; he had to play by the rules, which put him at an immediate disadvantage.

There were no displays of reverence, no fawning associates to amplify his message. Instead, the lawmakers, seasoned in the art of debate, took him down by adhering strictly to decorum, trapping him in a net woven from his own words and past actions. House committee members like Benny Abante and Gerville Luistro weren’t intimidated by Duterte’s reputation. They questioned him directly on his brutal drug war and his accountability for the extrajudicial killings that marked his presidency, cornering him every time he tried to deflect. The quad committee’s message was clear: Duterte could no longer hide behind his bluster.

The hearing showed a Duterte who was out of his depth, unprepared to defend himself in a space where he wasn’t in control. When he asked Surigao del Norte Representative Ace Barbers for copies of parliamentary rules, it was a stark sign that Duterte was in unfamiliar territory, outmaneuvered by the very processes that had made the hearing possible. Instead of the invincible leader he once appeared to be, he came across as a man struggling to stay afloat.

As the hours ticked by, Duterte’s team, led by Salvador Panelo, fumbled in their defense strategy, amplifying rather than diminishing his vulnerability. Panelo’s rhetoric about Duterte’s courage and transparency sounded hollow as Duterte repeatedly contradicted himself. He bragged about facing trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, handcuffed if necessary, only to backtrack later and argue that the ICC had no jurisdiction over him. The cognitive dissonance was staggering — a failed attempt to display bravado that instead underscored his uncertainty.

Former senators Leila de Lima and Antonio Trillanes IV, Duterte’s long-time critics, seized this rare moment to push him even further off balance. De Lima, recently acquitted and freed after years of political imprisonment, struck back against Duterte’s defamation with unyielding confidence. Trillanes zeroed in on Duterte’s financial dealings, challenging him to open his bank accounts for transparency. When Deputy Speaker Jay-Jay Suarez dared Duterte to sign a bank secrecy waiver, Duterte’s response — suggesting he might slap Trillanes instead — reduced the moment to a petty spectacle, exposing the limits of his machismo.

In the end, the hearing was a humbling moment, a rare glimpse of Duterte stripped of his defenses, struggling to maintain the authority he once commanded with ease. The lawmakers’ measured responses highlighted Duterte’s waning power. Their calm perseverance exposed him as a bully who, when forced to follow rules and face scrutiny, had no real answers. This moment felt like poetic justice for a man who had built his career on intimidation but found himself undermined by nothing more than the principles of order and fairness.

For years, Duterte projected an image of strength and fearlessness. But now, with the world watching, he seemed more like a relic than a force, a former strongman left to flounder in a system he no longer controlled. The encounter exposed the reality behind his bluster: when held accountable, Duterte was just another leader with a weak grasp of the very principles he claimed to uphold.

This was the moment the world saw Duterte for who he is — not an unstoppable force but a vulnerable man whose act had worn thin. And as his final curtain call looms, perhaps there’s a lesson here for all Filipinos. Leadership grounded in fear and force only goes so far. When the performance is over, when the lights dim and the bravado fades, what’s left is the need for genuine accountability. The strongman act may have served Duterte in the past, but in the face of true leadership, it reveals only emptiness.

(Tambuli Ng Bayan-Ronnie Estrada) #DuterteFinalCurtain