Friday, October 13, 2006
17 in nursing test scam named; case filed
MANILA -- Charges were filed Thursday by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) before the Department of Justice against 17 officers and owners of three private nursing review centers in connection with the leakage in the nursing licensure examination held last June 11 and 12.
Lawyer Elfren Meneses, NBI deputy director for anti-fraud and computer crime division, submitted a 40-page report to Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuño, who said he will immediately constitute a panel of five prosecutors that will handle the case.
He said the prosecutors may also recommend to Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez Sr. that those indicted by the NBI may be put in the Bureau of Immigration (BI) watch-list.
In its 22-page transmittal report, the NBI recommended the prosecution of Ricarte Gapuz, Evangeline Gapuz, Ma. Elena Altajeros, Elizabeth Iciano, and Eleanor Artemia Cruz of RA Gapuz Review Center; George Cordero, Adela Cordero, Jerry Cordero, Corazon Sabado, Macjohn Fabian, Lolita Barlahan, Eugenia Alcantara of Inress Review Center, Inc; and Gerald Andamo, lawyer Glenn Luansing, Mike Jimenez, Jerome Balisnomo, and Freddie Valdez of Pentagon Review Specialist Inc.
They were charged for violation of Republic Act (RA) 8981, a law modernizing the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC), on the basis of the complaint filed by PRC chairperson Leonor Rosero.
Under RA 8981, "a person who manipulates or rigs licensure examination results, secretly informs or makes known licensure examination questions prior to the conduct of the examination or tampers with the grades in professional licensure examinations shall, upon conviction, be punished by imprisonment of not less than six years and one day to
twelve years."
Guilty parties will also be fined with the amount between P50,000 to P100,000 or both.
If the offender is an officer or employee of the commission or a member of the regulatory board, he/she shall be removed from office; while accomplices may be slapped a penalty of imprisonment ranging from four years to six years or a fine ranging from P20,000 to P49,000 or both while a lesser penalty of imprisonment ranging from two years to four
years or a fine from P5,000 to P19,000, or both shall be imposed upon the accessories.
Investigators cited reports reaching the PRC of students/reviewees of Gapuz in Baguio City supposedly finishing the exams in a shorter period of time. Days later complaints of Gapuz's use of a leakage spread.
The NBI also took notice of the review centers' claim that boasting about "tips" is a normal practice by review centers in order to lure students to enroll in their institution, but it said the supposed irregularity in the recent nursing exam was not a simple case of a tip.
"What actually transpired was a leakage in every sense of the word. Indeed the review centers possessed and discussed questions with even the prescribed answers, clearly they must have valuable materials that have originated from the persons who prepared the exams," the report stated.
However, the NBI put off indicting the students who actively took part in the cheating claiming that "to push for the prosecution of the reviewees, is not only difficult but impractical. This is apart from the fact that this Bureau would not be willing to serve as an instrument in depriving the students of their professional advancement."
It pointed out that the students have not at all committed the act of making known the exam questions prior to the exams and the tampering of grades after the exams.
"They have not made known the questions prior to the exams for they were in fact recipients of it, through review materials which they still have to study and internalize. There is not much debate needed to show that the students are likewise not guilty of tampering for the same is in fact not the issue in this case," investigators said.
The NBI also added that the PRC had already addressed the problem when it invalidated 20 questions from Test III and made a recomputation on the grade in Test V, which in a way was a sensible solution to downgrade the effects of the leakages.
Since the said remedy was applied to the entire number of the examinees, it could not be said now that the possession of the leakage had in fact benefited some and that a few of examination populace had been unjustly benefited of a grade, which should not be rightfully theirs."
Two former members of the Board of Nursing and examiners of the licensure exam were earlier recommended for violation of the same law as well as of the RA 3019, or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
Zuño said the NBI may still file supplemental charges or expand the number of respondents should they find any basis for it and submit it to the DOJ.
Among the evidence submitted were manuscripts, compact discs and power point presentations of the leak questions and their answers, as well as sworn statements and affidavits of about 22 witnesses who are mostly students, reviewees, lecturers and photocopiers.
At the Senate, Senator Panfilo Lacson advised Malacañang to wait for the Court of Appeals (CA) decision on the nursing board exams leakage instead of taking actions that would preempt the court.
Lacson said the CA is due to come out with a decision on the matter on or before October 18 when the temporary restraining order (TRO) it issued against the oath-taking of some 17,000 successful board examinees will lapse.
He said it would be confusing for all parties concerned if Malacañang was to issue an order on the matter on October 15, only to be rebuffed by a conflicting CA decision.
Besides, he added, all parties are ultimately bound by the decision of the CA.
In Thursday's hearing of the Senate committee on civil service and government reorganization chaired by Lacson,
PRC chairwoman Leonor Rosero said she plans to administer the oath to the nursing exam passers should the TRO expire on October 18.
Rosero further said 6,000 of 17,000 passers of the examination taken by 40,000 nursing graduates already took their oaths before the appellate court issued the TRO. Of the 6,000 oath-takers, 2,000 have already registered with the PRC and have received their licenses.
PRC Commissioner Renato Valdecantos, for his part, said if the CA was to invalidate the results of the exams and orders a retake, the licenses of the 2000 will have to be revoked.
Lacson said he is drafting a bill that will make cheating in nursing licensure examinations a criminal offense punishable with up to 12 years of imprisonment.
He said an initial version of the bill only covers civil service exams.
The senator asked for inputs from the PRC and the Philippine Nursing Association before drafting the final version of the bill. (ECV/CPB/Sunnex)
(October 13, 2006 issue)
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