Ping urges Palace to wait for CA ruling on nursing exam retake

Opposition Sen. Panfilo Lacson advised Malacañang yesterday against issuing any order on the nursing licensure controversy pending the court’s decision on the validity of last June’s board exam.

Meanwhile, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has recommended the filing of criminal charges against 17 officials of three review centers for allegedly disseminating the test questions to board examinees.

Charged before the justice department were officials of RA Gapuz Review Center, namely, its owner Ricarte Gapuz Jr., Evangeline Gapuz, Ma. Elena Altarejos, Elizabeth Iciano and Eleanor Artemia-Gapuz.

From Inress Review Center Inc., the respondents were George Cordero, Adela Cordero, Gerry Cordero, Corazon Sabado, MacJohn Fabian, Lolita Barlahan and Eugenia Alcantara.

The other respondents were Gerald Andamo, lawyer Glenn Luansing, Mike Jimenes, Jerome Balisnomo and Freddie Valdez from Pentagon Review Specialists Inc.

NBI Director Nestor Mantaring said they were all charged with violation of Section 15 of Republic Act 8981, or the law that modernized the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC).

The officials face six to 12 years in prison if found guilty.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita on Wednesday said President Arroyo and the Cabinet have agreed to let the labor department decide whether to order two of the five-part examination retaken based on the NBI’s findings.

But Lacson, who chairs the committee on civil service and government reorganization, urged the Palace to wait for the CA ruling before it decides on how to resolve the exam leakage.

"I think it will be useful to be prudent," said Lacson, as he asked the executive department to avoid future conflicts with the court rulings and the subsequent lifting of the temporary restraining order issued by the CA on the oath taking of the board passers. The TRO expires on Oct. 18.

"The issue is complicated. Malacañang is saying one thing, the PRC another and even the board passers are saying something else," the senator said in Tagalog.

PRC chairwoman Leonor Tripon-Rosero reiterated yesterday her position that she would allow the oath taking of the board passers once the TRO issued by the CA expires.

Appearing at the Senate hearing on the controversy for the second time this week, Rosero said she would permit the oath taking unless Malacañang orders otherwise.

Some 6,000 out of 17,000 board passers of exams taken by 40,000 nursing graduates, already took their oath before the TRO was issued. Of the 6,000, one third or about 2,000 have already registered with PRC.

PRC commissioner Renato Valdecantos said the licenses of the 2,000 passers registered with the PRC would be revoked if the CA rules that the results of the board exam are invalid.

The appellate court issued the TRO on Aug. 18 based on a petition filed by several nursing groups asking the court to invalidate the results of the June 12 Nursing Licensure Examination. The CA is still deliberating on the petition.

The NBI, in its probe of the scandal, ruled last Wednesday that the Nursing Licensure Examination leakage was limited only to Baguio City and Manila.

Yesterday, Mantaring said the NBI’s anti-fraud and computer crimes division (AFCCD) has "terminated" its probe on the controversy after 32 days of investigation.

The 22-page NBI report was submitted by NBI-AFCCD regional director Elfren Meneses Jr. to Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuño, who said he would prepare a lineup of prosecutors to conduct the preliminary investigation against the respondents.

"With these voluminous documents, there will be about five members of the panel. By tomorrow, we will create the panel. We have to give the panel (time) to go over the documents and by two or three days and subpoenas will be sent," Zuño said.

He added that the DOJ panel might recommend inclusion of the respondents in the immigration watch-list. — With Evelyn Macairan, Sheila Crisostomo, Jose Rodel Clapano