Being born poor and wanting to genuinely help in boosting family income, Senator Lito Lapid struggled at a young age to find employment in rural Porac, Pampanga, his hometown. He found odd work as camera caretaker and stuntman in the movies where his uncle, the late Jess Lapid, was able to make a name and thus open up opportunities for the Lapid clan to also try showbiz.
I have been a part of Lito Lapid’s early career in the movies, having been a young scriptwriter and assistant director in several movies that Lito and myself worked in under Joseph Estrada Productions, Lea Productions, etc. I also wrote the script of his first starring role, “The Jess Lapid Story,” and later I directed his really blockbuster movie, “Ben Tumbling, A People’s Journal Story.”
Those were hard and difficult times, especially when he had to shoot action scenes in barren Sapang Bato in Angeles-Mabalacat area, behind the US controlled Clark Air Base; under the intense heat of the sun, or the pouring rain.
We also shot scenes in Mt. Makiling in Los Baños, thankful that Director Augusto Buenaventura was both our very capable mentor and friend. I remember Lito and I constantly praying that Alma Moreno, who was the female lead of Erap, would again be absent at the set, so that we could eat her special meal allocation prepared only for the lead stars. This was in 1977 and Lito Lapid was a stuntman at that time.
Now, Lito Lapid has been in the Senate for a number of years and notched another success for being reelected in the 20th Congress— No. 11 to be exact in a group of 12 survivors in the very competitive electoral contest.
Proof of Senator Lapid’s concern for the education of the youth is his being the principal author of Senate Bill No. 2974, known as the Expanded Philippine Science High School (PSHS) Sytem Act.
This bill seeks to strengthen governance and management of the Philippine Science High Schools in the whole country, and appropriates funds for such.
Both Senator Lapid and my good friend, Florante Rosales, a co-member in the Philippine Media Network Service Cooperative (PMNSC) are happy that this particular bill was one of the first to be passed by the Senate when it resumed session last June 2.
Other senators also pushed this bill, among them Zubiri, Alan Peter Cayetano, Estrada, Tolentino, Revilla, Gatchalian, Villar, Villanueva, Go and Pia Cayetano.
The science and academic communities are also all praises for the approval by the Senate of this bill.
Among them are officials of the Department of Science and Technology and the PSHS led by Executive Director Ronnalee Orteza who helped Lapid, Zubiri and other senators in crafting the measure.
They said once enacted, the PSHS law will bring the PSHS brand of STEM excellence closer to deserving students nationwide, allowing more scholars to access quality education and contribute to the country’s innovation landscape.
Senator Lapid told this columnist that he might not have been lucky to achieve higher education, the poor and deserving Filipino youths of this generation and the next will be able to benefit from laws that he had championed and pushed.
A legacy indeed from a self-made actor and senator who proved that poverty and lack of formal education are hurdles that can be cleared.
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