What next after the storm?

Together with Typhoon Tino and Uwan or even before these, a very conspicuous whirling political storm has been brewing, building up, and, fast accelerating.

Will the next storm affecting the country and the Filipinos be a peaceful or violent political storm? The sighted storm is caused by winds, forces, coming from various directions.

One is coming from the public whose fury is now patent. Whether this will be unleashed, when and how will be known soon, very soon?

Calls for mass action have been mounting.

This example – “let us harness the energies from our grief and despair. let this shape our collective wrath. Put those who've profited from projects that have resulted in loss of lives and displacement in handcuffs! And this includes those who've allowed the bulldozing of our mountains to make way for lifestyle housing and irresponsible quarrying to go unchecked. Accountability now!”

November 30, Andres Bonifacio Day, is one projected timeline for another massive indignation rally!

Prior to November 30, however, certain sectors from the furious public have organized their own mass protests like doing signature campaigns.

Although the mud from the Tino floodwaters has yet to be completely cleaned from Cebu roads, several youth groups from Safe Spaces Federation and members of Youth Claim-UP Cebu staged their picket rally along the Mananga River in Talisay City last November 6 to “raise concerns over Cebu’s multi-billion-peso flood control budget, citing damaged or collapsed riprap sections along the river.”

The November 30 rally is expected to draw a bigger crowd enraged about the billions, trillions of pesos lost to the corrupt.

“Ikulong na ang mga kurakot” has continued to be a rallying theme for the fuming public.

BBM said he is worried not about the November 30 mass rally but about “agitators who will go and try to cause trouble.”

To recall, the September 21 anti-corruption protests were marred by violent incidents. To avoid this during the November 30 rally, the Philippine National Police (PNP) announced that it was “studying possible threat groups.”

Another possible force that is anticipated to be embroiled in a future political storm may come from the Duterte side which has been calling for the resignation or ouster of BBM.

Duterte’s daughter, who has been very critical of BBM, is currently VP and will stand to gain with a BBM ouster. What steps will the Duterte bloc take to ride on the public fury vs. corruption and the massive destruction that killed hundreds and harmed thousands more in Cebu and elsewhere?

How many Filipinos will believe, as claimed by her spokesperson, that “VP Sara Duterte has moved past political distractions and is now fully focused on finishing her term with a standing ovation.” That VP Sara “had learned to rise above political noise and personal grievances, choosing instead to focus on governance and public service?”

VP Duterte maintains that attempts to link her to the multibillion-peso flood control controversy or the impeachment complaint anchored on allegations over her abuse of confidential funds “are politically motivated and meant to divert attention from other matters.”

Will there also be some political movement from their side now that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Sen. Ronald “Bato” DeLa Rosa (Duterte’s former PNP chief who played a key role in implementing the bloody anti-drug campaign)?

From the side of the victims of the rampant extra-judicial killings and those who opposed that bloody Duterte drug campaign, however, a heave of relief.

In the words of a vehement opponent of that bloody campaign, Dela Rosa’s looming ICC arrest “is something far more ethically sacred: the trembling exhale of a people long suffocated by silence, fear, and impunity.”

It’s the sound of the oppressed whispering: "finally", and then ecstatically shouting: FINALLY!