A thumbs-up for her sworn enemies exhibited by a crucial ally showed how badly things are going for beleaguered Vice President Sara Duterte.

Last Monday, ace political survivalist, former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, joined a group photo with House Speaker Martin Romualdez and President Marcos Jr.’s son, Ilocos Norte Rep. Sandro Marcos, and fatefully gave a thumbs-up.

Arroyo’s sign of approval came after the House leadership passed a resolution expressing the chamber’s support for Romualdez.

The resolution came three days after the Veep’s unhinged declaration that she had made arrangements to do Romualdez in, along with President Marcos Jr. and First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos. Ms. Duterte has since backtracked by absurdly claiming that what she had aired was only a “conditional threat.”

At the exact moment Arroyo was giving her thumbs-up, the Veep was in another room at the Batasang Pambansa watching the plenary photo op on TV.

The besieged Veep didn’t visibly indicate that she had caught Arroyo’s gesture; or if she did, she probably chose silence for what Arroyo — who often came to her aid whenever she had trouble with the House — did.

Arroyo hasn’t come forward to explain. But, as UP political scientist Jean Encinas-Franco told a reporter, it was probably her survival instinct kicking in and “she probably wanted to disassociate herself from (Sara’s) threats. She probably thinks Sara’s current actions and behavior would make it difficult to defend her.”

If Encinas-Franco is correct, Ms. Arroyo has joined the scores of politicians disembarking from the Duterte bus.

At the same time, Ms. Duterte also in effect lost a key general who used to shore up one of her exposed flanks in her ongoing brutal showdown with the Marcoses, which some keen observers are declaring the Marcoses are effectively winning.

Ms. Duterte, however, wasn’t the only one stumbling, tumbling from carelessly dancing what a keen political observer called the Duterte strategy of “awe and shock” in this showdown of political elites.

In aid of his daughter, former president Rodrigo Duterte came out with guns blazing and again called for military intervention. But, he fired blanks.

The military establishment swiftly shot down the elder Duterte’s double-speak for them to “correct a fractured governance” without resorting to a coup, only by a withdrawal of support.

In reiterating their professionalism and ironclad loyalty to the Constitution and the chain of command, active duty soldiers made it crystal clear they were content with the status quo and wanted to be left alone.

Curiously, the elder Duterte hasn’t yet called on the police force to do the same.

But Duterte may have already faced up to the fact that his cultivated and pampered police network has been effectively disabled. The police brass has been purged and Duterte loyalist cops, particularly in the Davao region, have been dispersed to far-flung posts.

Duterte acolytes, meanwhile, tried to rally people to the streets, an essential condition in our politics for catching the attention of the security forces.

But few heeded the call or reportedly joined for a fee. The mobilization came to naught, not least because the Duterte camp’s access to friendly broadcast and other media facilities had been cut off.

Social media, meanwhile, seemed useless. Avowed supporters protested on social media but these same supporters were seemingly content to be trolls, as one wag quipped: “Trolls don’t march on the streets!” A classic case of protest from home then.

Rabid supporters, however, could not do otherwise. Duterte himself engineered such smug behavior when, as one commentator pointed out, he “crowed he’d repudiated People Power and all it stood for.”

But, an even more glaring tactical mistake was calling for mobilization during the holiday season.

Aside from the fact the Dutertes committed the mistake of initiating their attack on the cusp of the holidays, following it through the holidays is just as bad. Just about everyone is vomiting depressive politics and just want a good time.