EDITORIAL - The real culprits remain free

Thousands of nursing graduates all over the country are going to take the nursing board licensure exams this weekend, among them those who took the tainted June 2006 exams and ordered to retake the test.

Most of those who are taking the test for the first time, as well as those retaking them as a result of that scam last year, are taking the test fired by no other ambition than to use their profession as a ticket to leave a sinking ship and strike for shore in other lands.

This longing for a better life is a basic human aspiration and if the only means to see the dream come true is to leave home, then it should not be taken against them, provided they do not break any rules in doing so.

The trouble is, the line separating what is right and wrong has been blurred by that controversy. The shock from the scam has made it easy to lump examinees and examiners into one despicable lot.

What we have forgotten is that the examinees did not have any inkling of the scam until it was offered to them. Let it never be said that students who sacrifice years of going through school are not prepared to take one final exam honestly because they are.

It is those in charge of preparing the examinees and those who administer the exams who conspire to corrupt the examinees, knowing fully well how desperate longing can make examinees highly susceptible to any assurance of success.

In other words, the examinees were mere victims of the vultures in the system, their desperation for a better life exploited mercilessly by those who are merely out to make a quick buck in whatever way they can.

Yet, for all the trouble that the scam has caused everyone, only two examinees have so far been charged. Worse, none of the suspected principals in the scam is among them. We will never be able to solve our problems if the best we can do is just to put up a charade.