TRAGEDIES and calamities bring out the best in the Bicolanos. Time and again tragic events have created heroes, sung and unsung, among us. The evil that confronts us brings out in us the energy to race against time, the courage to confront the inevitable, the sentiments that bind us with the victims. It is the moment of denouement, of unfolding, of revelation. It is, in a way, show time of what is the best in us.

        The plunge to their death of more than a hundred of devotees ofNuestra Senora de Penafrancia on September 16, 1972 when the wooden Colgante bridge collapsed beneath their feet just before the pagoda of Bicol’s Ina passed under it revealed just how the Bicolanos reacted in the face of tragedy. Racing against time, Dr. Salve Badiola-Claros and veteran newsman Rufo “Toots” Tuy teamed up to call for help and direct rescue strategies. The two of them and those who responded to their call for help stirred in the Bicolanos their innate desire to be of help to their katood in any which way they could. It was said that there was not even a report that valuables worn by these victims as well as by those who survived the tragedy were missing. It was a moment that brought out the best in the Bicolanos.

        The double whammy of typhoons Milenyo and Reming that struck the Bicol region last year —coupled with the floodwaters carrying sand and debris from the slopes of Mayon Volcano that swept down to the towns of Guinobatan, Daraga and Legazpi City, half-burying houses and stretches of once verdant fields — were not only destructive to life and property and dreams but even to the will power to survive had not their fellow Bicolanos come to their rescue — Bicolanos from outside the region — Bicolanos from almost every town and school in the region. As case in point was the Damayan Network of Bicol University students which was one of the five finalists in the First Raul S. Roco Youth Achievement Awards. The project was cited by the awards committee to have brought out the best of Bicolano values among the students in moments of tragedy and reversals of fortune, such as their civility and concern for the victims of killer-typhoon Reming and of the landslides and mudflows from Mayon Volcano. The project was cited to have helped the worst hit communities in Legazpi City and Daraga. It was a moment of truth for the youth, an inspiring moment of revelation that young as they are, these students have taken upon themselves the burden of sharing what they have with people in need.

        The preparations made last week by Bicolanos as two typhoons were forecast to sweep down the region — Lando and Mina — spoke of concern and commitment of Bicolanos to help their fellow Bicolanos. The early evacuation activities of residents from several barangays particularly by the coastlines of the Pacific and at the foot of Mayon Volcano were undertaken with earnestness to bring them to safer grounds. They were fed and sheltered at the expense of the government and of other kindhearted souls. Though the worst of the typhoons was not experienced in Bicol, the pre-emptive preparations made by the provincial government of Albay were obviously a demonstration of concern and brought out the best in the Bicolanos: Albay as well as the analytical forecasts of Mike Padua were obviously a demonstration of concern and brought out the best in the Bicolanos: a people with their eyes in their company.

        The best in the Bicolanos rears up after a tragedy or after a swift reversal of fortune as in the cases of the Colgante disaster and the natural calamity that befell Albay last year after the double whammy of Reming and Milenyo. But in last week’s impending storms, the best in the Bicolanos reared up before the tragedy struck, even before Nature turned berserk. Such moments of revelation -- after a tragedy or, even more, before a tragedy - are moments that lift up the Bicolano psyche, are moments that make us proud that we are Bicolanos.