WITH the fireworks on the scandal-wracked $329-million NBN deal unleashed to every Filipino’s disgrace by every ounce of ink in today’s headlines, Bicolanos are once again playing lead roles on opposing sides of the frontlines. Last Monday, during the Senate hearing, Sen. Joker Arroyo got himself jolted when whistle-blower Rodolfo Noel Lozada, a fellow Bicolano from Ligao, Albay, told this week’s Senate hearing that he had in fact at one time talked to Arroyo’s lawyer-wife, among other people. Lozada’s lamblike confession came after the senator from Baao, Camarines Sur pointedly accused him of bias for talking only to Sen. Lacson what he knew about the shenanigans in the NBN web that got himself tangled in.

        History will bear us out that Bicolanos always find themselves in the eye of political storm since Quezon, and in recent memory, from Marcos to Cory to FVR to Erap, and now in GMA’s time, not as ordinary folks from the sidelines but as key players during interesting times.

        When Quezon was hailed as an unmatchable leader of the nascent Philippine commonwealth, Wenceslao Q. Vinzons, then a young UP campus leader from Camarines Norte stood up to challenge the president’s autocratic brand of leadership and governance.

        In the turbulent times during Marcos, Joker Arroyo and fellow Bicolano lawyers courageously questioned the constitutionality of Martial Law while the whole length of the Bicol peninsula turned bloody red due to the protracted war between gov’t troopers and the Mao-inspired rebels. On the other side was a young Francisco Tatad of Catanduanes who served as the dictatorship’s spokesman, apologist and propagandist. He would later sever his ties with the palace when another Bicolano, then Col. Gringo Honasan from Sorsogon, led fellow junior military officers to break away from the AFP that led to a bloodless “people power’ that ended Marcos’ reign.

        Under Martial Law, the Bicolanos were fiercely on the opposition side. Notably, and to our pride, no Bicolano was near the circle of power at that time; not a Bicolano was a member of the dreaded “Seven Wise Men” that engineered the Martial Law machine. On the other hand, many Bicol activists were incarcerated, maimed or killed in the name of freedom and people’s upheaval. In the hinterlands, meanwhile, Communist Party helmsman Jose Maria Sison took as his wife Juliet of the De Lima clan of Iriga City.

        Writing in his book, “Dead Aim”, Bicolano columnist Conrado de Quiros, himself a student activist at that time, quoted Tatad’s recollection of the few days before Martial Law was declared: “As spokesman, it was my duty to deny that Marcos was going to declare martial law … Indeed, on the very week of martial law, Marcos asked me to meet with newspaper people and try to persuade them to be more cooperative. A couple of days before martial law, I invited them to be less critical of the administration, to try to look at things from the presidential perspective. I don’t know how very persuasive I was, but I certainly tried to be. I thought that was really what Marcos wanted to happen. As it turned out, while I was talking to them, the wheels of martial law were already grinding.”

        When Cory took over, Malacanang was crowded with Bicolano appointees, led by Joker Arroyo as executive secretary, with Andaya Sr., Ciriaco Alfelor, Ziga, Luis Villafuerte, etc. getting token posts as Cabinet men or presidential advisers. Ramon Diaz, a Nagueno known for his integrity and honesty, was appointed PCCG chairman after Salonga handed the post to him to continue the Herculean task of recovering the enormous ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses.

        In FVR’s time, again Joker, with prominent Bicolano leaders on his side, including Fr. Joaquin Bernas, S.J. linked arms to repudiate Ramos’ design for charter change which they believe was meant to extend the term of the then outgoing president.

        Again, more Bicolanos hogged the headlines when they took the center stage to call for Erap Estrada to resign. The lawmakers, frontlined by then Cong. Joker Arroyo, Sen. Raul S. Roco, and Cong. Nonoy Andaya displayed their prowess and brilliance to impeach the president. It was while the case was in progress that pro-Estrada CamSur Cong. Noli Fuentebella was anointed to succeed House Speaker Manny Villar. Villar’s head paid the price for having smartly railroaded the impeachment complaint. Luis Villafuerte, as chairman of the League of Governors, reaffirmed his loyalty to Erap until the last hour that it became clear that it was time for Erap to go. It only took a little time for the CamSur governor to switch side and find himself in Gloria’s grace.

        Now we have another interesting chapter in GMA’s time. The man of the hour is Albayano Lozada, an electronics engineer who worked at the wrong place at a wrong time where his bosses were as voracious as the crocs that specialized on kickbacks. Unfortunately, we find Joker Arroyo on the administration side. Along that side is CamSur Rep. Luis R. Villafuerte. LRV’s colleagues were rejoicing upon the ouster of Speaker Jose De Venecia when Lozada finally surfaced as star witness in the unfinished business that was the NBN scandal. JDV was being crucified for his failure to rein in his son who first blew the whistle on the graft-laden NBN deal where Lozada was consultant. We can only hope that Sen. Chiz Escudero of Sorsogon, and perhaps with the help of Bicolana-blooded Sen. Jamby Madrigal (despite her sometimes impertinent line of interpellation) will fight to the hilt in ferreting out the truth about the scandal-wracked NBN deal as unfolded by fellow Bicolano Lozada.