GMA orders speedy probe of nursing exam leakage

President Arroyo has ordered authorities to hasten their investigation into the June 2006 nursing licensure examinations leakage scandal and asked Congress to craft laws that would impose stiffer penalties on those who damage the integrity of government board tests.

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye, however, said the quick action of the government agencies concerned helped to immediately restore the integrity of the country’s nursing system.

"The controversy brought about by the nursing board exam should serve as a hard lesson for all. (Mrs.) Arroyo expects the wheels of justice to start rolling against those who have tainted the integrity of the nursing profession," Bunye said.

"Consistent with the policy of punishing the guilty and sparing the innocent," he said the Palace welcomes the move of the Ombudsman to file charges against two nursing board members for allegedly leaking the questions to review centers.

Bunye said the executive branch "is prepared to work with Congress in order to ensure that stiffer penalties would be imposed against those who would mess up the integrity of all our licensure examinations as we aim to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents."

Mrs. Arroyo on Wednesday approved the recommendation of Labor Secretary Arturo Brion to implement a voluntary retake of specific tests for those who passed the cheating-tainted June exam and want to work in the United States, as required by the US Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CFGNS).

The move came after the CFGNS rejected with finality a last-ditch appeal by a congressional task force to reconsider its decision not to issue visa screen certificates to those who passed the June 2006 exam.

The certificates are required before an applicant wishing to work in the US can obtain a visa from the US embassy.

Mrs. Arroyo also said the government will shoulder the exam fee of those who choose to retake Tests 3 and 5, which were affected by the leakage.

Bunye said concerned agencies, including the Department of Labor and Employment and the Commission on Filipinos Overseas, are doing their best to make it easy for the June 2006 board passers as well as nursing graduates to secure employment here and abroad.

He said despite the scandal, the image of Filipino nurses remains positive abroad.

On the other hand, nursing industry leaders now want to train their sights on the three review centers involved in the leakage-tainted June 2006 exams.

Dr. Marilyn Lorenzo, former head of the University of the Philippines’ Institute of Health Policy and Development Study, said the government must speed up the cases against R.A. Gapuz Review Center, Pentagon Review Specialist Inc. and the Institute for Review and Special Studies.

"While we are now contemplating how to help the June passers meet the requirements of the CGFNS, we should not forget the cases of these review centers," she said.

These three review centers are facing criminal and administrative charges before the Department of Justice and the Professional Regulation Commission.

Lorenzo said the review centers should "be made accountable" for their alleged participation in the leakage that marred last year’s licensure examination for nurses.

The other day, Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez approved the filing of corruption charges against Anesia Dionisio and Virginia Madeja, former members of the Board of Nursing implicated in the leakage.

The leaked questions in Tests 3 and 5 of the examination were found to have come from their manuscripts.

Lorenzo said others involved in the irregularity should also be penalized for the sake of the innocent examinees who suffered the consequences of the leakage.

Brion, however, is optimistic that "through the retake, our nurses – especially the June 2006 board passers — will have a very high level of competence and integrity."

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is currently finalizing guidelines of the retake exam, which Brion has described as the "final and closing chapter of our June 2006 nursing board exam traumatic experience."

Brion said he has been meeting with deans of the country’s top nursing schools for the last two weeks on how to go about the review and retake.

Reports said the exam would be partial and voluntary and specifically for passers of the controversial board exam who intend to work in the US.

Of the approximately 42,000 students who took the nursing licensure exam in June last year, only 17,000 passed.

Brion explained the exam retake being arranged is "an employability exam and completely different from licensure exam," which means licenses of June 2006 board passers would no longer be at stake. – With Sheila Crisostomo and Edu Punay