Arroyo flip-flops on exams retake

Palace waits for results of NBI probe

By Christine Avendaño
Inquirer
Last updated 01:38am (Mla time) 10/05/2006

Published on Page A1 of the October 5, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

WAVERING YET AGAIN on the matter of the tainted nursing board examination, Malacañang announced yesterday that it would defer the issuance of an executive order on a retake until it gets all the facts in.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was “not insensitive” to the hue and cry generated by her decision to order a retake of the June exam marred by a leak of test questions.

Ermita said Malacañang would take into consideration not only the final ruling of the Court of Appeals, which had temporarily stopped the exam passers from being sworn in as nurses, but also a crucial finding of the National Bureau of Investigation, which would determine who among the passers had benefited from the leak.

The NBI report is expected to be submitted to Malacañang on or before Oct. 15, he told reporters at his weekly briefing.

Ermita said the President had instructed Labor Secretary Arturo Brion to “review and restudy” the draft EO recommending a retake of the board exam “for all.”

Brion submitted the draft to Ms Arroyo on Tuesday. The EO was to have been issued by Malacañang yesterday.

Varying reactions

Ermita said the EO had been sent back to Brion with the instruction that he “consider the information he had gathered from his meetings with the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC), the Board of Nursing (BON) and stakeholders of the nursing profession.”

According to Ermita, the President also thought of returning Brion’s draft EO after learning of the varying reactions of the public, as reported in the media.

“To say it in a few words, the President is not insensitive to what [she had] heard and read when the issue [arose]. And therefore, she directed the [labor department] to review the EO [that Brion] himself submitted in light of all the feedback we got,” Ermita said.

He said all these inputs, including the Court of Appeals ruling and the NBI finding, would be incorporated in a fresh draft that Brion would present at “a special Cabinet meeting” on Tuesday.

He also said Ms Arroyo and the Cabinet would then decide on the matter “with finality.”
Ermita said he had separately asked Brion and Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez whether executive action on the matter would be lawful in the light of a petition pending at the appellate court.

Legal opinions

He said the two officials had replied in the negative. He also said he did not know for sure whether Palace action would render the CA ruling moot and academic.

Ermita said he had also spoken with NBI Director Nestor Mantaring, who told him that the bureau would submit on or before Oct. 15 its final finding on the review centers that had benefited from the leaked test questions.

He said he had asked Mantaring to attend the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday to provide an update on the NBI probe.

So far, Ermita said, the NBI had found that there were two review centers that discussed the leaked test questions with nursing examinees.

The NBI is also looking into another three review centers, he said, adding that all five review centers were located in Luzon but had branches in other areas.

General retake?

The NBI is “reconstructing” the list of reviewers at these five review centers and matching it with the PRC list of exam passers, according to Ermita.

He said that by doing so, the NBI would be able to track down the passers from these review centers and “exclude” those who did not register at the centers.

“What are we leading to here?” Ermita said. “Probably that it could lead to a certain course of action as to whether it will be a general retake for everybody or a retake for certain people.”

In case a general retake of the exam would be decided, he said this would be conducted at the same time as the regular nursing board exam -- in this case, the first week of December.

Ermita said the government, through the Department of Budget and Management, would allocate P52 million to subsidize the retake, should this be the final position.

Of the 42,000 who took the controversial June exam, only 17,300 passed.

Ermita said “whatever decision that will come out will be good for the nursing profession and the other professions.”

Integrity

“We are doing a thorough study because it’s important for us to maintain the integrity of our Filipino professionals,” he said.

Ermita said that the Palace did not want the reputation of Filipino professionals to be tainted, and that this was the “higher interest” it was taking to heart in dealing with the controversy.