Vis-Min examinees must be exempted from retake of nursing exam — Recto

Sen. Ralph Recto proposed yesterday that the nursing graduates who took the nursing board examinations in the Visayas and Mindanao as well as the cities of Legazpi, Tuguegarao and Lucena last June should be exempted from retaking the exams as ordered by President Arroyo.

Recto said the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), which conducted a probe of the leakage of questions in the board examination, noted that the leak was confined to examinees in Manila and Baguio City.

Aside from Legazpi, Tuguegarao and Lucena, the nursing test was given last June 11 and 12 in the cities of Cebu, Iloilo and Tacloban in the Visayas, and in Cagayan de Oro, Davao and Zamboanga in Mindanao.

Recto said there is no need to punish examinees who have been ruled out by the NBI as probable beneficiaries of the test leakage that occurred only in Manila and Baguio.

"If there’s robbery in Manila, would you take the fingerprints of people in faraway Zamboanga? I don’t think the leaked questions were transmitted through mental telepathy," Recto said.

He defended the examinees who took the test in the Visayas, Mindanao, Southern Tagalog, the Bicol Region and Cagayan Valley, saying they took the exams "fair and square."

"Should there be a court-sanctioned re-test, then it should only be in these cities (Manila and Baguio), and only on the (affected) subjects which have been put under a cloud of doubt," he said.

There is not an iota of evidence to suggest that tests held in the South, and Cagayan were marred with anomalies, so there’s no reason to torture the honest nurses with another round of testing, he said.

Recto said the planned retake of the nursing exams should be given for free. "Maraming kalabaw ang maibebenta kung pagbabayarin uli ang mga kukuha ng test," he said.

Recto made the call a few days after President Arroyo ordered a retake of the test but the Palace later backtracked from the plan and explained that the administration will just wait for the decision of the Court of Appeals regarding the test leakage.

Sen. Mar Roxas, however, supported the plan for a retake of the nursing examination to protect the integrity and credibility of the nursing profession and the conduct of licensure examinations in the country.

Roxas said the credibility and validity of the licensure and accreditation system administered by the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) suffered a setback because of the nursing test scandal.

He added that a retake of the examination is needed in order to assure hospitals, medical institutions, and the patients themselves that the local nursing graduates are competent.

Roxas called on the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and PRC to come up with mitigating measures to help the affected nursing graduates take the test anew with minimum inconvenience and expenses.

"The test takers are the true victims here. The government should provide financial support since those who took the nursing board exams fell victim to a failure of governance," he added.

The senator said the retake of the nursing board examinations is a major step towards restoring confidence in the entire system of accreditation and regulation of professionals.

Senator Roxas also suggested that the PRC be held accountable for failing to make sure that the system works properly. "Heads must roll at the PRC," he stressed.

Roxas urged Labor Secretary Arturo Brion and Dante Ang, chairman of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas, to inform hospitals and medical institutions here and overseas of the Philippine government’s initiative to uphold the integrity and credibility of its licensure and accreditation process.