‘President torn between being mom and professor’

First posted 04:01am (Mla time)
Oct 12, 2006
By Gil C. Cabacungan Jr.
Inquirer

Editor's Note: Published on Page A1 of the October 12, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

IN CONFRONTING the issue of the purported cheating in the June nursing licensure examination, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is torn between being a mother and being a professor.

This was disclosed yesterday by Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita and Presidential Management Staff chief Arthur Yap, who sought to explain Ms Arroyo’s less than decisive stance vis-à-vis the proposed retake of the tainted exam, which has sharply divided the nation.

Ermita said Ms Arroyo shared the pain of the parents “who spent so much for their children’s education” and who knew fully well “the time and effort that their children had given to the examination, [only to find themselves under threat of investigation] because of the action of a few.”

He said this was the reason behind her instruction to the concerned authorities to spare the innocent and punish only those proven guilty.

“We expect the President to hand down her decision as early as Monday,” Ermita said.

But meanwhile, according to Yap, Ms Arroyo has had to balance her own views on an issue that she knows would not completely satisfy everyone whichever way she decides.

“As a mother, President Arroyo feels for the parents and students -- their misery and anxiety,” he said. “She wants to be fair to the examinees who had nothing to do with the leakage and did not benefit from it, as much as she wants the culprits prosecuted under the law.”

On the other hand, the President has to struggle with her own professional standards, said Yap, who was one of Ms Arroyo’s students when she was teaching economics at the Ateneo de Manila University.

“She is a professor as well, and she wants to safeguard the integrity of our nursing licensure examination system, which today is under a grave cloud of doubt,” Yap said.

Ermita said Ms Arroyo had taken in stride all criticisms of her perceived flip-flop on the issue.

“But despite the unfair charges, she continues to be sensitive to what she hears and reads,” Ermita said.

Balancing all interests

He said this was why Ms Arroyo had “taken pains to address the concerns of all parties by designating [Labor Secretary Arturo Brion as the official] in charge of the details and ordering the National Bureau of Investigation to be more focused in its findings.”

Yap said balancing all these interests was “paramount” in the President’s mind.

He added: “She does not want to speculate, and she will wait for the Department of Labor and Employment and the NBI to submit their findings, anyway. She has given the DoLE the authority to dispose of this controversy. She will allow designated Cabinet officers to make his or her call on the matter.”

The NBI is to submit its findings to the Department of Justice, which will act on its recommendation to file charges against 17 officials of three yet unnamed review centers purportedly responsible for the cheating.

The bureau has left it to the DoLE to decide on the issue of the retake. The latter is expected to submit its recommendation on Saturday morning, giving Ms Arroyo the rest of the weekend to decide on the issue.

Solomonic decision

Ermita expressed confidence that the President would come up with a “Solomonic decision.”

“She knows she can’t please everybody, but ... whatever the decision recommended by the DoLE, it is still her responsibility,” he said.