Arroyo orders retake of nursing exams

DoLE, PRC to thresh out details of new tests today

By Christine Avendaño
Inquirer
Last updated 01:39am (Mla time) 09/28/2006

Published on Page A1 of the September 28, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has ordered the retake of the June nursing board examination to redeem the image of Filipino nurses here and abroad, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita announced yesterday.

Ermita said Labor Secretary Arturo Brion was to meet today with officials of the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) to discuss the details of the retake of the exam that was marred by a leakage of test questions.

He also said Ms Arroyo had assigned the supervision of the PRC to the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE). Prior to the leakage controversy, the PRC was attached to the Office of the President.

“As to whether it will be a retake of everything or only the test where there was leakage, or whether it will be only for those who may have taken advantage of the review centers where they had registered, all these details will be discussed by Brion and the PRC,” Ermita told reporters at his weekly briefing in Malacañang.

According to Ermita, Ms Arroyo decided on a retake of the exam at a meeting with members of her Cabinet on Tuesday.

Investigations

“The President made the decision and agreed with the majority of those who said, ‘Yes, let’s allow the retake, but leave the details to Secretary Brion,’” he said.

The leakage of test questions for the nursing board exam is now being looked into not only by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) but also by the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The NBI has recommended the filing of charges against two members of the Board of Nursing whose test manuscripts had been leaked.

PRC Chair Leonor Tripon-Rosero had earlier said there would be no retake despite the leakage.
She subsequently told a recent Senate inquiry into the leakage that the decision not to have a retake and to administer the oath to the exam passers was final.

Some 42,000 students took the June nursing examination and 17,000 passed.

Senator Richard Gordon and other senators have been pushing for a retake, saying the leakage had besmirched the reputation of Filipino nurses and the integrity of the nursing licensure exam.

Ms Arroyo had previously aired statements to the effect that she wanted the guilty to be punished and the innocent to be spared, suggesting that a retake was possible.

Yesterday following a Senate budget hearing, Brion told reporters that the PRC decision against a retake of the exam could still change.

He said the matter would be among the talking points at the planned meeting with PRC officials today.

Integrity

“Of course [the decision] can change,” Brion said. “It’s in the agenda. It’s a current problem that we have to look into.”

Recalling the discussion at the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Ermita said his colleagues had argued for the retake in the conviction that “the integrity of the exam and of the nursing profession” was “at stake.”

He said members of the Cabinet had also expressed concern that the integrity of other Filipino professionals whose licensure exams were controlled by the PRC could be tainted.

“And therefore, in order to preserve the good reputation of our Filipino professionals, maybe we should get back the respect of employers -- both local and [foreign] -- for our professionals,” he said.

Ermita quoted a Cabinet member who had just arrived from the United States as saying that according to the Philippine Nurses Association in that country, the reputation of nurses there had been somehow affected by the controversy.

“These are the reasons that led to a decision to go ahead and resuscitate the image” of our nurses, Ermita said.

Among those who took part in the discussion were Brion, Education Secretary Jesli Lapus, Dante Ang of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas and Trade Secretary Peter Favila.

Ermita said the “consensus” of those present was that a retake was “the best thing to do.”
Direction, coordination

It was the leakage controversy that prompted the President to issue Executive Order No. 565 “attaching the PRC to the DoLE for general direction and coordination,” Ermita said.

He said Ms Arroyo signed the EO on Sept. 11 but it was only released the other day.

He added that Brion’s meeting today with PRC officials was also intended to “discuss the parameters of their relationship.”

Brion also told the Senate about the executive order placing the PRC under the jurisdiction of the labor department.

Senator Franklin Drilon, chair of the Senate finance committee, said that it was the first time he and his colleagues had heard of Ms Arroyo’s order, and that even labor officials had been caught by surprise.

“They (labor officials) are not so confident that they are equipped to handle such a huge bureaucracy joining the DoLE family,” Drilon said.

With reports from Juliet Labog-Javellana and Lira Dalangin-Fernandez, INQ7.net