"I’m not jumping the gun on my colleagues, but I think Jesli’s confirmation hearing will not be a heroic struggle on his part," said Sen. Ralph Recto, a member of the congressional committee that screens and approves presidential appointments.
Recto and Sen. Manuel Roxas II believe Lapus’ managerial know-how can turn the country’s decaying public school system around despite his lack of experience in the education sector.
"If you want to manage a class of 50, get a good teacher but if you want to manage a bureaucracy of 500,000 get a good manager. And, Jesli is it," Recto said.
Recto added that Lapus’ vast experience as a former bank manager and congressman should be considered as major points in getting the committee’s nod.
"We should remember that he ran the country’s biggest bank and in the age when PhDs have a hard time balancing the checkbook. That is no mean feat," he said.
Roxas backed the education program that Lapus recently unveiled, which focuses on teacher-training, improving managerial skills of school administrators, and addressing the huge budgetary gap that led to the current shortages in the public education system.
"As a former congressman, he understands how the budget process works, and as a former bank president, he has the managerial know-how to move the DepEd bureaucracy towards the right direction. His previous experience as a university professor also assures the public of his familiarity with the challenges that teachers and school administrators face," he said.
Roxas also concurred with Lapus’ diagnosis that the Department of Education (DepEd) is an "enterprise in crisis."
"We should put more money into education, and make sure that these funds are properly utilized... (The lack of) classrooms, teachers, seats, and textbook shortages... is a managerial problem and I fully support the intention of the incoming DepEd secretary to resolve these problems," Roxas said.
Roxas also reiterated his call for the allocation of P9.18 billion more for the education department on top of its proposed 2006 budget of P110 billion.
The amount, which can be sourced from the portion of the expanded value-added tax collections of government, would go to basic educational resources, teacher training, and private school subsidy.
Roxas is the author of Senate Bill No. 2174, which seeks to amend Republic Act No. 7880, also known as the "Fair and Equitable Access to Education Act" that Roxas also authored when he was a congressman.
Senate Bill 2174 seeks to shift priority, for a period of three years, to areas with a dearth of classrooms by increasing the resource allocation for classroom shortages from 40 percent to 60 percent of the total capital outlay, while reducing the allocation for capital outlay according to student population from 50 percent to 30 percent.
The bill also recommends that the implementation and administration of the school building program be turned over from the Department of Public Works and Highways to the DepEd, or to the concerned local municipal or city government, as may be authorized by the DepEd.
President Arroyo has listed education as one of her top priorities.