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Thursday, September 21, 2006
Parties in nursing leakage show up in Senate hearing
FEARING that they might also share the same fate as that of detained Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) Chairman Camilo Sabio, officials of the Professional Regulations Commission (PRC), Commission on Higher Education (Ched), and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) appeared Wednesday in the Senate hearing on the nursing examination leakage.
“They know the law and the detention of a big fish (Sabio) in the Senate really helped,” said Senator Richard Gordon, member of the Senate committee on civil service and government reorganization that is looking into the anomaly in the June 11 and June 12, 2006 nurses licensure examination.
“It vindicates a fact that the Senate is a very responsible institution and because of the answers we’re getting, we’re going to come up with a better law and better nurses. To me it shows that the check and balance function (of the Senate) is working. In these investigations, we see the qualities of the people we put in the PRC, Board of Nursing and Ched,” he added.
Senator Rodolfo Biazon, the committee chairman, said that had PRC Chairperson Leonor Tripon-Rosero, PRC Commissioners Renato Valdecantos and Avelina dela Rea; and Efren Meneses, Jr., NBI Anti-Fraud and Computer Crimes Division chief, snubbed the hearing, the Senate will cite them in contempt and issue arrest warrants against them.
Julito Vitriolo, Ched deputy executive director, also attended Wednesday’s hearing but the Senate has not issued yet a subpoena against him. It was the first time a Ched official appeared in the investigation.
During the hearing, Gordon told PRC officials to resign for failing to ensure fairness in the recent nursing board examination, which led to the leakage and thus put the integrity of the nursing profession in question.
“What are involved here is the integrity of the profession and the responsibility of the commission and the board (of nursing). The big deal is that there is no explanation on how we are dealing with the problem, with the whole system. I think all of you should resign,” he said.
Gordon asked why the PRC tried to conceal the examination leakage and pushed through with the oath-taking of successful examinees while the NBI investigation the commission had asked for as well as the Senate hearing were still pending.
Rosero said they were only recognizing the rights of the Nurses Licensure Examination passers. “We will revoke or suspend their license, if those who took the oath before the issuance of a temporary restraining order by the Court of Appeals would be found to have benefited from the leakage,” she said.
The leakage allegedly came out during the final coaching conducted by the Inress Review Center and Philippine College of Health Sciences owned by George Cordero, the former Philippine Nurses Association (PNA) president. Cordero, who was accused of being involved in the cheating, failed to attend Wednesday’s hearing because he was rushed Monday to the St. Luke’s Medical Center for “recurrence of my previous surgical condition, a fistula which has been profusely bleeding.” He was referring to anal fistulectomy. (REC/Sunnex)
(September 21, 2006 issue)
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