|
Friday, July 11, 2003
NBI busts man faking gov't exam results
By Ernie N. Olson Jr.
BAGUIO -- National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agents busted a syndicate believed to be falsifying government exam results nationwide with the arrest of one of its members inside the Civil Service Commission (CSC) regional office at New Lucban late Thursday morning.
"We still have to investigate how deep the extent of their operations are because some of those involved may already be in our foreign service or holding other sensitive government positions. This may not only be a simple matter of falsification of public documents, but could also be a matter of national security," lawyer Rickson Chiong, NBI regional director for the Cordilleras, pointed out Thursday afternoon.
Chiong added that they are "almost certain" that the suspect did not give his real name, but was only using the name of another person on whose behalf he took the CSC professional examinations before being caught.
He appealed to the public to assist them in identifying the arrested man so they could arrest his cohorts.
"In this operation, whatever their role here was, all of those involved are principals by cooperation," he added.
Chiong explained that the alleged syndicate operates by providing interested CSC exam applicants with a stand-in, who has an above average or high intelligence quotient (IQ), and who take these tests for them in exchange for a considerable remuneration or fee.
Although the arrested suspect first claimed that he was working alone and denied being part of a syndicate, he later admitted to Baguio-based reporters in an interview he receives P2,500 per transaction.
"Pero, sigurado ako na may mga ibang tao na gumagawa rin nito," the still unidentified suspect claimed. (But, I am sure that there are other people who are also engaged in this.)
CSC exam processor Rovilyn Subala, who was also present with two of her co-employees during the interview, disclosed that the NBI-CAR team made the arrest around 11:15 a.m. Thursday.
CSC examiner Anthony Madayag said he suspected something was amiss when the man, when he walked into the examination room as early as 7:30 a.m., kept trying to hide his face.
"The suspect kept on covering his face from time to time, while taking the exam, when he saw that I was the one assigned to watch them," he said.
Saying the examinee looked familiar to him and suspecting that he may be among those who took the walk-in or computer-assisted examinations earlier, Madayag checked their records and discovered the suspect closely resembled at least three other men who took the tests recently.
The identities of the persons the suspect represented in the examination were kept under wraps in the meantime, pending the results of a follow-up investigation. Sun.Star Baguio
(July 11, 2003 issue)
Want Sun.Star news on your mobile phone? Click here.
Write letter to the editor. Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here. |
|
|
|
 |
| click
to comment on this article or discuss it with other readers |
[return to top]
[home]
|
|
Soldiers, cops hunt down Sayyafs in Palimbang