NO, I won’t be writing about the dreaded Davao Death Squad (DDS) that once had the likes of former police officer Arturo Lascañas and former police asset Edgar Matobato. By DDS, I am actually referring to the Duterte Diehard Supporters (also Digong Duterte Supporters), the ka-DDS of Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) assistant secretary Margaux “Mocha” Uson.
It is a loose group of supporters of the candidacy of Rodrigo Duterte in last year’s presidential elections who transitioned to become apologists of the government when Duterte became president. It is composed of, among others, bloggers, entertainers, journalists and lawyers. Its high-profile members are known for mimicking the verbal mannerisms of their idol and for spreading fake news.
Duterte had other rivals in the presidential polls aside from the Mar Roxas of the Liberal Party. There was, for example, Sen. Grace Poe, former vice president Jejomar Binay and the late Miriam Defensor-Santiago. But the DDS was obsessed with Roxas and by extension former president Benigno Aquino III. They held on to that obsession even under the Duterte presidency, labeling every critic as “dilawan.”
For a while, the DDS dominated the discourse in the web with the help of the social media network of then vice presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and its army of trolls. They were aggressive in joining every politics-related post in the Internet and flooding these with their unique style of discourse that is characterized by hatred, personal attacks and use of “alternative facts.”
However, this dominance gradually dissipated during the first year of the Duterte presidency as the leading DDS personalities like Uson and the anti-DDS forces and the political opposition, or whatever remains of it, reorganized and repositioned themselves. This is also the price of being in the administration. The Duterte critics are now in the position the DDS was in when Aquino was president.
Which brings me to my other point. That the DDS is only as strong as Duterte’s level of popularity. If the Duterte phenomenon were a wave, the DDS and its partners, like the Kilusang Pagbabago of Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco, are merely situated on its crest. They can only go as high as the height of the wave’s crest. If Duterte’s popularity goes down, so too will the DDS weaken.
President Duterte is still popular but as months passed his critics are becoming bolder and the political opposition is starting to regain its voice. So too the leading DDS personalities like Uson have been increasingly put on the defensive. They are starting to realize that their defense of the Duterte administration is only as effective as Duterte’s success in governance.
Also, the strategy of the DDS and its army of trolls has already been exposed. Its success has mostly been on its effective use of social media and its instruments. If you look at the list of fake news websites, for example, most of those in it are pro-Duterte websites, which is not mere coincidence. We have now a growing movement against the spread of fake news, lies and half-truths in social media, effectively clipping the wings of the DDS.