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Saturday, October 14, 2006
Court orders: 1,687 to retake nursing exams
MANILA -- A decision that the Court of Appeals (CA) deemed as fruit of "Solomonic" wisdom called for a selective retake of the nursing licensure exams among those whose names were merely added to the list of successful examinees.
In a 33-page decision penned by Associate Justice Vicente Veloso, the CA First Division Friday said that 1,687 examinees will retake tests 3 and 5, which the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC), through Resolution 31, invalidated following reports that questions in those tests had been leaked.
The resolution had paved the way for a recomputation of the scores, which resulted in the passing of an additional 1,687 board takers but the removal of 1,186 names from the original list of successful examinees.
But in its ruling, the court nullified Resolution 31.
"The act of failing 1,186 examinees who actually passed the June 11 and 12, 2006 examination is a serious, if not gravest abuse of discretion one can imagine," the CA said.
The court also allowed the oath-taking and issuance of licenses to all of successful examinees who were untainted by the leakage scandal.
"The tests that were conducted outside of Manila and Baguio were observed by both the respondents and the NBI to have been clean. The successful examinees are therefore entitled to an immediate oath-taking and license," the CA said.
The appellate court also ruled that there was no evidence showing widespread leakage.
"Having found, based on unrefuted evidence, that there was no widespread leakage, and absent any preponderant evidence on who specifically benefited therefrom, a 'retake' will be too drastic a pill for the examinees to absorb," it said.
The court also noted that, "only the examinees that may be identified by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to have attended the final coaching at the review centers of Gapuz, Inress, and Pentagon were to be penalized with a retaking of tests 3 and 5.
The three review centers have been identified by the NBI as having been allegedly involved in the leakage.
Last Thursday, the NBI filed a criminal complaint before the Department of Justice against 17 executives of the R.A. Gapuz Review Center, Inress Review Center, and the Pentagon Review Center.
Last August 17, Rene Luis Tadle from the University of Santo Tomas' College of Nursing, the League of Concerned Nurses, and other groups sought the invalidation of Resolution 31 while Dante Ang, the presidential adviser on migrant workers, had petitioned for a retake for tests 3 and 5.
In Malacañang, Presidential Chief of Staff Michael Defensor described as a vindication for President Arroyo and the Cabinet the CA's decision on a selective retake of the nursing exams.
Some 42,600 students took the nursing exam but only 17,821 passed.
The CA directed the PRC to conduct a selective retaking of tests 3 and 5 among the 1,687 examinees whose names were merely added to the unaltered list of 41.24 percent successful examinees.
Test 3 is on medical/surgical nursing exam while test 5 is on the neuro-psychiatric nursing exam.
PRC Chairperson Leonor Rosero earlier said some 6,000 of the 17,000 already took their oaths before the CA issued a temporary restraining order early this year.
Of the 6,000 examinees, some 2,000 have already registered with PRC and have been received licenses.
On June 11 to 12, the PRC gave a licensure exam for the nursing profession in Manila, Baguio, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, Davao, Iloilo, Legaspi, Lucena, Tacloban, Tugue-garao, and Zamboanga.
In a radio interview, Presidential Chief of Staff Defensor said he expects the CA decision to be factored in the recommendation that the Labor Secretary Arturo Brion is preparing and submitting to President Arroyo this weekend. (Sunnex)
(October 14, 2006 issue)
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