Lapus is next DepEd chief?

Malacañang is set to announce this week the appointment of Tarlac Rep. Jesli Lapus as Education secretary, a well-placed source at the House of Representatives said. Lapus refused to make a comment when asked for a reaction. “No comment," he said in a text message. The source said the announcement was supposed to be made last week but did not push through because Lapus was “not feeling well." Fe Hidalgo, the Education department’s officer-in-charge, said Lapus is a “wise choice." Hidalgo was appointed officer-in-charge on September 1, 2005, after former secretary Florencio Abad resigned. Education department employees have been lobbying for Hidalgo’s appointment as Education secretary. Lapus is on last term as representative of Tarlac and is chairman of the Committee on ways and means. Lapus exposed the multimillion-peso automatic payroll deduction scheme at the Education department that was the cause of the low take-home pay of public-school teachers. Lapus’ expose’ led to reforms in the payroll deduction scheme of the department. GMANews.TV