Wednesday, October 18, 2006 Wenceslao: Time to end the uncertainty By Bong O. Wenceslao
Are these people imbued with idealism or are they just a bunch of hypocrites? I just couldn't shake that question off when I read the report that heads of the University of Santo Tomas (UST) College of Nursing Faculty Association, the League of Concerned Nurses and the Binuklod na Samahan ng mga Student Nurses just don't want to give up.
Those groups look lightweights to me, but they are so determined in pushing for a nationwide retake of some tests of the 2006 nursing board exams they are messing up with the effort to get a quick and widely acceptable solution to the leakage issue. And their lobby may not end with the Court of Appeals but may go up to the Supreme Court.
What is really galling is the insistence that examinees nationwide may have benefited from the leak that three review centers distributed to their reviewers. Didn't a National Bureau of Investigation probe expose the claim as a mirage? By insisting on that line, these groups are besmirching the reputations of the many honest examinees.
The main argument of those pushing for a nationwide retake of the 2006 nursing board exams is that the move would cleanse the supposedly tainted image of the nursing profession in the country. That sounds idealistic. But are there hidden motivations there? Like the UST faculty wanting to make its college of nursing look better in the retake?
Anyway, Justice Regalado Maambong, in a radio dyLA interview yesterday, does not think the Court of Appeals (CA) will reverse its ruling calling for a selective retake of the examinations. “The decision would be easy to make,” he said, “because this mainly involves common sense.” Indeed, why punish the innocent for the sins of a few?
Meanwhile, the examinees should add in their prayers the hope that Labor Secretary Arturo Brion will succeed in his initiative to reconcile the pros and antis in the retake issue. Brion has called on the CA to call a reconciliation meeting so the case won’t go all the way to the Supreme Court with the filing of motions for reconsideration.
It’s time to end the uncertainty and the pain that the 2006 nursing board examinees are enduring. The longer the case will drag on, the more damaging will its effect be on the psyche and the careers of those concerned. Besides, wouldn’t it be good if the examinees spend their Christmas with the leakage nightmare fully behind them?
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I got an invitation to the grand reunion of Southwestern University’s high school department on Oct. 21. Guest speaker is former senator Rene Espina. Registration starts at 4 p.m. on that day.
