Whatever happened to Boom Boom, Noy?

They both submitted tragic, embarrassing results in their first big fight. It has thus become inevitable that President Aquino be likened to the comebacking boxer Boom Boom Bautista.
Bautista, his injured punching fist repaired, registered a questionable win in Cebu on Saturday, a feeble feat which did not bring him any closer to another crack at a world title.
As spearhead of the Philippine team in the 2007 Boxing World Cup, Bautista, undefeated, bombed out against powerhouse Mexico.
He was stopped—or allowed himself to be knocked out cold—by Mexico’s Daniel Ponce de Leon in the first round in Sacramento, California.
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Anyway, it was clear they’ve cured Bautista’s fractured hand.
What they failed to solve was Boom Boom’s lame-duck defense.
He remained one-dimensional, a sucker for left shots, which he generously absorbed last Saturday.
In short, he did not improve from the neophyte aspirant who embodied freak, blind courage in his first try at a world crown.
Actually, the popular view is that the bout Bautista won at the Waterfront Hotel in Cebu on Saturday should’ve been ruled a technical draw.
It later became clear that the ghastly cut suffered by his Mexican foe was caused by an accidental headbutt in the fourth round.
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Anyway, they said that Bautista fumbled and lost to Ponce de Leon in 2007 because he was too young and, therefore, not physically and mentally prepared for the once-in-a-lifetime challenge.
His over-eager handlers, who pushed Boom Boom to stardom ahead of his time, obviously thought otherwise.
As a result, they had to swallow their pride and lick their wounds following Bautista’s big fall.
Of course, unlike our latest national caper, Boom Boom did not end up truly humiliated.
We mean here the abominable hostage killings at the Quirino Grandstand last week which left the whole country paralyzed with both doubt and shame.
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You see, just like in the case of Bautista, the first gigantic test came for President Aquino too soon.
Of course, unlike Boom Boom, who had no choice but fight his own fight, Noynoy did not readily take a direct hand in trying to solve the monumental problem that ticked like a time bomb.
Either he did not find the dilemma big enough, or all he had was a kiddie assessment of the damning incident.
Well, he was not solely to blame.
The truly tragic thing is that the incident deteriorated into a comedy of errors after he left it in the hands of trusted elder leaders and decorated advisers.
Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim did not end up causing a repeat of the Mendiola peasants massacre under President Cory, but his order for the handcuffing of the hostage-taker’s brother clearly led to the total breakdown.
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As the Tourism Congress in Cebu lamented: “There was the lack of a visible strong and calming presence of a high-ranking official directing the actions of the hostage crisis resolution team.”
There were similar regrets that the President did not bother to cast his lot, and offered to retry the dismissal case of the hostage-taker, a former police captain.
No, there were no charges of dereliction of duty and criminal negligence.
But, in the end, there came this damning dig that Aquino foes were, in fact, right when they demanded a normalcy and psycho test after Mr. Aquino started to break away from the pack in the nationwide surveys for the last elections.