As Filipinos mourn, danger ahead

Back in October, this column cautioned that President Benigno Aquino 3rd may face multiple crises till early 2015, from another supertyphoon or commuter train disaster to a terrorist attack during Pope Francis’s visit. Then his chronic crisis mismanagement would spawn more debacles for his rule.

Now it’s crisis time. And like past or continuing brouhahas — the vanishing of more than 2,000 cargo containers in 2011, escalating crime under Aquino, his illegal Disbursement Acceleration Program, the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) and National Bilibid Prisons (NBP) troubles, and the almost year-long ports congestion — the January 25 massacre of 44 crack troopers of the Philippine National Police Special Action Force (PNP-SAF) in Mamasapano, Maguindanao, was largely self-inflicted by the national leadership.