SC urged to void nurse oath-taking

Three nursing groups led by the University of Sto. Tomas (UST) College of Nursing Faculty Association asked the Supreme Court yesterday to void the oath-taking of more than 17,000 new nurses who passed the leakage-tainted June licensure examinations.

The 39-page petition was filed through lawyers Roberto Abad and Pia Cristina Bersamin by UST College of Nursing faculty association president Rene Luis Tadle, League of Concerned Nurses president Earl Francis Sumile, and Binuklod ng Samahan ng mga Student Nurses president Michael Angelo Brant.

They also asked the SC to stop the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) from implementing the order of the Court of Appeals last Oct. 13 allowing the oath taking of the new nurses who passed the June 11 and 12, 2006 licensure examinations.

Tadle said the CA committed "grave abuse of discretion" when it ordered the immediate execution of its order last Oct. 13 denying their motion for reconsideration.

"The CA’s ruling on the nursing leakage sets a frightening precedent for all PRC board examinations where examinees can become doctors, nurses, engineers or teachers by cheating so long as such cheating is not widespread, and so long as the cheaters cannot be identified," he said.

"Letting the high scores in some subjects pull up poor scores in other subjects also violates the specific subject competency rule. The essence of the rule is that every examinee should earn a grade of at least 60 percent. The Board of Nursing cannot use the high scores the examinees earned in some subjects to pull up a failing score in one subject. But the formula adopted by the Board of Nursing with the PRC’s approval ignored this rule."

Meanwhile, the PRC swore in yesterday the five new examiners of the Board of Nursing (BON).

They are: Carmencita Abaquin, chairman; and Leonila Faire, Perla Po, Betty Merritt and Marco Antonio Sto. Tomas, members.

They replaced former chairman Eufemia Octaviana and members Letty Kwan and Remedios Fernandez who resigned in July after their colleagues Anesia Dionisio and Virginia Madeja were implicated in the alleged irregularity.

The five new BON members were nominated by the Philippine Nurse’s Association to the PRC, which, in turn, endorsed them to Malacañang for approval.

At the Department of Justice, a four-man panel of prosecutors investigating the alleged leakage in last June’s nursing licensure examinations summoned yesterday 18 officials of three nursing review centers who were implicated in the controversy.

In an interview, State Prosecutor Pedro Juan Navera said they had summoned Ricarte A. Gapuz Jr., owner of R.A. Gapuz Review Center Inc.; Evangeline A. Gapuz; Ma. Elena G. Altarejos; Elizabeth G. Ician; and Eleanor Artemia Gapuz; the officials of Inress Review Center Inc., George C. Cordero, Adela Cordero, Jerry Cordero, Corazon Sabado, MacJohn Fabian, Lolita Barlahan and Eugenia Alcantara; the officials of Pentagon Review Specialists Inc., Gerald Andamo, lawyer Glenn Luansing, Mike Jimenes, Jerome Balisnomo and Freddie Valdez.

Navera said they also told complainants Edna Marie Mallari, Anne Christine Millan and Rachelle Cyndi Erfe Ong, and witnesses Leonor Rosero, Dennis Cesar Alba Bautista, Fely Marilyn Elegado-Lorenzo, Mary Grace Marqueses, Danilo Zano III, Loraine Anne Gapate, Roxan Patdu, Maricris Paterno and Evelyn Asinas to appear before the panel at 2 p.m. on Nov. 9.

"We relied on the lists provided by the National Bureau of Investigation, and we added another respondent, Jonna Bucud," he said.

"We based our subpoena on the affidavits submitted by the complainants and the nursing students."

Navera said some names, which would be added to the list of respondents, might eventually emerge during the preliminary investigation.

"The preliminary investigation that we are going to conduct has nothing to do with the petition filed by the faculty members of the nursing school of the University of Sto. Tomas before the Supreme Court," he said.

"The SC case has something to do with the oath taking and the investigation on students who benefited from the leakage. But ours involved the source of the leakage and what will be their criminal culpability."

Navera said they will also summon former nursing examiners Anesia Dionisio and Virginia Madeja, tagged by a witness as the one who ordered her to type the test questions prepared by Dionisio at the Philippine General Hospital’s nursing service.

Asinas stated in her affidavit that Dionisio was her former supervisor at the PGH, he added.

Navera said Bucud was the one identified by University of the Philippines Nursing professor Cora Annonueva as the one who faxed the 18-page manuscript from Baguio to Manila to the Ray A. Gapuz Review Center.

Annonueva stated in her affidavit that Bucud was chosen by Ray Gapuz as a scholar in his school and served as drill master for R.A. Gapuz Review Center, he added.

Other members of the panel are Prosecution Attorneys Rhodora Salazar and Rita Seranilla with State Prosecutor Rosanne Balauag as chairman.

In a 22-page complaint filed through the NBI anti-fraud and computer crimes division, Regional Director Efren Meneses Jr. said the Gapuz, Inress and Pentagon review centers were the source of the leakage of questionnaires in the 2006 nursing licensure exams.

"We have evidence against the three review centers," he said.

"We have gathered the manuscripts of the questions prepared by the Nursing Board, which they distributed to the examinees: compact discs, sworn statements and affidavits, power point presentation, handwritten 495 questions prepared by the examinees."

NBI Director Nestor Mantaring said the respondents could be held liable for violation of Republic Act 8981, the Act Modernizing the PRC.

There is sufficient evidence to establish that Inress and Gapuz review centers have much to do with the proliferation of the leakage, he added.

Mantaring said prior to the nursing licensure examinations, review materials that contained actual questions in the examinations were circulated in Baguio City and used mostly by reviewees from the Gapuz Review Center.

"Testament to the propensity of such circulation is the fact that the materials have been rampantly reproduced in just about any photocopying shops in the streets of Baguio to the point that it is not a far-fetched idea that even non-Gapuz reviewees may have availed of (them) as well," he said.

"Since Test III of the nursing licensure examinations, this would surely entice more students into believing that the review materials they were distributing for Test V may actually come out in the nursing licensure examinations as well."

Mantaring said several eyewitnesses alleged that aside from the final coaching session, Pentagon had boasted that they have leaked questionnaires months before the nursing licensure examinations.

Pentagon also gave specific instructions to their reviewees not to share their materials with students from other nursing review centers, he added.