Senate probing nursing exam leak told of Swiss junket

By TJ Burgonio
Inquirer
Last updated 03:49am (Mla time) 08/17/2006

Published on Page A1 of the August 17, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

ALLEGATIONS that the president of the Philippine Nurses Association traveled with two key officials of the Board of Nursing (BON) to Switzerland to attend a convention and paid for their trip surfaced yesterday at the Senate inquiry into the alleged leakage at the recent nursing board exams.

An examinee submitted a statement to the BON, a copy of which the investigating Senate committee on civil service was furnished, claiming that Jorge Cordero had boasted that he paid for the trip of two BON members to Switzerland.

In her testimony before the BON, Pamela Ortega charged that Cordero made the boast during the last day of the two-day “final coaching” for reviewers enrolled at the INRESS Review Center in Manila on June 9, two days before the board exams.

Nursing school owner

It turned out Cordero also owned the nursing school, Philippine College of Health Sciences Inc. (PCHS), and the INRESS Review Center.

When grilled by committee chair Senator Rodolfo Biazon, BON chair Eufemia Octavio admitted that she and BON member Anesia Dionisio traveled with Cordero to Geneva to attend a convention, but maintained that they paid for their own fare and other expenses.

Cordero, who was reportedly confined at the St. Luke’s Medical Center for an unknown ailment, failed to show up. He admitted traveling with the two BON officials, but denied footing their bills, according to a PRC fact-finding report.

“This only confirms allegations of leakage,” Biazon later said after the hearing.

Coaching

At the second hearing, snubbed anew by Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) officials, another reviewer at INRESS, Dennis Bautista, testified that he and over a thousand others were coached on the “right answers” to questions during their two-day final coaching at the SM Mall in Manila.

He also claimed that retired Col. Victoria S. Ramon, vice president of the Philippine Nurses Association, was present during the review at the SM Mall as alternate instructor, and that Cordero had boasted he would set a dinner with the BON when told of a possible retake of the exams.

This was the same two-day review attended by Ortega.

Biazon said he would consider issuing a subpoena to compel PRC Chair Leonor Tripon-Rosero, and Commissioners Renato Valdecantos and Avelina de la Rea to appear at the next hearing.

The Senate opened the inquiry based on resolutions filed by Senators Pia Cayetano and Richard Gordon seeking investigation of complaints that review materials produced by some review centers contained questions that cropped up at board exams on June 11 and 12.

Payment of P7 million

In her testimony before the BON, Ortega, a Medical Technology graduate of the University of Santo Tomas who took up nursing at the PCHS and reviewed at INRESS, said she went to SM Manila on the night of June 9 to attend review classes called by Cordero.

“Mr. Cordero told them that he did not pay P7 million for nothing and that he brought and paid the trip recently of two BON members to Switzerland. He assured the second-coursers that they do not need to undergo interviews because the BON will readily sign their application forms, they are his friends,” the BON said in a two-page document, recounting Ortega’s testimony.

The document was signed by Octaviano and board member Letty Kuan.

“I think Mr. Cordero was just being humbug about his wealth,” Kuan said when asked by Biazon what she thought of Cordero’s insinuation he paid off the BON some P7 million.

Octaviano, for her part, admitted she and Dionisio traveled with Cordero to Geneva to attend an international convention on regulatory functions hosted by the International Council of Nurses, but maintained that they paid for their own expenses.

The body sent invitations to her as BON chair and another commission member, as well as representatives of nursing organizations.

Review questions same as test

“I paid for my own trip,” she said, saying that she was allowed by the government to go on the trip if there was no cost to the government. “I believe she did also,” she said when asked if Dionisio foot her own bills. Dionisio failed to show up at the hearing.

Ortega also “voluntarily” provided the BON a document containing handwritten notes of the test questions and their answers during the two-day review at INRESS. To her surprise, she found these “exactly the same” as some of the test questions during the actual exams, the BON said.

“That’s what she wanted to tell us that there was cheating,” Kuan said.