THE Department of Justice yesterday recommended the filing of
criminal charges before the Manila regional trial court against George Cordero,
president of Inress Review Center, in connection with the leakage of test
questions during the June 2006 nursing licensure examinations.
However, similar charges for violation of Section 15 of the
Republic Act 8981 (Professional Regulation Commission Modernization Act) against
Cordero's co-respondents Jonna Bucud and Ricardo Gapuz Jr. and Elena
Gapuz-Altajeros, operators of Gapuz Review Center were dismissed for
insufficiency of evidence.
In a 10-page resolution, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez
found probable cause in the complaint filed by the National Bureau of
Investigation which originally found criminally liable all 19 officers and
operators of Inress, Gapuz and Pentagon nursing review centers.
The resolution modified an earlier finding of DOJ prosecutors
that indicted all four operators of Gapuz and Inress review centers on the basis
of manuscripts, compact discs and power point presentations of the leaked
questions and their answers, as well as sworn statements and affidavits of
witnesses who were mostly students, reviewees, lecturers and xerox copiers.
The DOJ pointed out that the alleged leaked questions were
discovered to have come from Inress, but no evidence implicated the Gapuz and
Pentagon review centers.
If convicted, Cordero faces a prison term of six to 12 years
and a fine of P50,000 to P100,000 or both.
The DOJ gave merit to the testimony of witness-reviewee
Dennis Alba Bautista, who claimed that he was among those at the final coaching
class at the SM Manila two days before the exams. Bautista presented as evidence
a compact disk which the reviewers listened to during the coaching class, where
25 items in Test III (Medical-Surgical) and 90 items in Test V (Psychiatric
Nursing) were found to be identical to the lectures given by Inress.
Bautista said Cordero seemed so confident about the leakage
that he announced a tuition refund for those who would top the examination.
Gonzalez said this confidence clearly implied that all questions discussed in
the Inress lecture were to be asked in the actual examinations.
Gonzalez said the charges against Bucud, Gapuz and Altajeros
were dropped because their indictment was only for "secretly informing or making
known the examination questions prior to the day of the examination" and not for
rigging the NLEX.
He said no evidence has been presented that would justify the
indictment of some board examiners who were reportedly given free trips abroad
by several review centers. He said the NBI must continue its investigation of
these examiners' "scandalous and illegal act."
The June 2006 NLEX were taken by 42,600 students where only 17,821 passed.
The leakage prompted the nursing board to order a retake of the exams. -
Evangeline C. de Vera
