Head of nurse group linked to test leaks

Inquirer
Last updated 06:12am (Mla time) 07/25/2006

Published on Page A13 of the July 25, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

BAGUIO CITY -- Nursing schools here have asked the Philippine Nurses Association (PNA) to sanction its president for obstructing an exposé of the cheating that marred the June 11 and 12 licensure examinations for nurses.

The deans of the Saint Louis University (SLU) College of Nursing and the Easter College School of Nursing accused George Cordero, PNA president, of attempting to suppress a report about alleged test leakages that attended the examinations administered by the Professional Regulatory Commission (PRC).

Ninety-one examinees have demanded the suspension of the Board of Nursing members and the delay in the release of the June 11 and 12 test results until an independent fact-finding body investigates the cheating.

Easter College dean Ruth Tingba, who is a PNA governor, and SLU dean Maria Grace Lacanaria, who is chapter president of the Association of Deans of Philippine Colleges of Nursing (ADCN), are also suing Cordero today (July 25, Tuesday) at the Baguio courts for obstruction of justice because, they said, his telephone calls suggested that he was a participant in a cover-up.
Lacanaria said she received telephone calls from Cordero urging her to clamp down on the scandal purportedly to avoid destabilizing negotiations with the American National Council of State Boards of Nursing for a Philippine testing center that will offer migrating nurses the United States National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEx).

The Inquirer learned that the deans have since received digital copies of reports that “directly implicate Cordero in an industry-wide whitewash.”

The leakages were first exposed when the Baguio complainants saw photocopies of an 18-page document that contained handwritten test questions and answers.

The copies belonged to nursing licensure applicants, who wore uniform jackets of the R.A. Gapuz Review Center. These applicants had shared their copies with some examinees, who then alerted Norenia Dao-ayen, PNA Baguio president and former nursing school dean of the University of the Cordilleras.

The PRC said it traced the leakages to two members of the nursing board but only recommended that they be charged with gross negligence.

In the PRC fact-finding report, a suspect claimed she lost her test questions when she had them photocopied in Manila, while another suspect claimed that her test questions were stolen.
A final set of test questions is drafted based on their contributions.

Vincent Cabreza, PDI Northern Luzon Bureau