PRESIDENT Arroyo yesterday said the
government will appeal the US Commission on Graduate of Foreign
Nursing Schools (CGFNS) decision to withhold the issuance of US
visas to local nursing graduates who passed the controversial
2006 licensure examinations unless these passers re-take two
sections of the exams where cheating took place.
At the same time, she said all Professional
Regulation Commission (PRC) officials involved in leaking test
questions to selected examinees will be fired and prosecuted.
At the annual meeting of Philippine-American
Academy of Science and Engineering, Arroyo said government will
help the 2006 nursing board passers with financial and other
assistance, including finding them a common review center, to
prepare them for a retake.
"I am saddened by the fact that the visa-hold
has been employed on the deployment of our Filipino nurses, as a
result of the nursing exams of last year. I have instructed the
secretary of labor to immediately look into the findings of the
CGFNS and seek all forms of relief from the visa-hold and appeal
for the reconsideration of the decision," she said.
She also ordered Executive Secretary Eduardo
Ermita to follow up the reform measures mandated by the Cabinet
for the PRC to help uphold the integrity of that institution.
"All officials involved in the nursing exam
leakage should be dismissed without benefits and criminally
charged…I request action by the Court of Appeals for the early
resolution of the pertinent case so we can move forward on this
issue. We shall resolve this controversy once and for all and
uphold the prestige and excellence of the Philippine nursing
profession," she added.
The Supreme Court, however, denied with
finality yesterday the motion filed by a group of practicing
nurses, nursing students and teachers of the University of Santo
Tomas seeking a temporary restraining order against the Court of
Appeals to stop it from enforcing its Oct. 13, 2006 decision
allowing some of the board passers to take their oath as nurses
even while an investigation of the leakage was ongoing.
The petitioners also wanted the licenses of
the 2006 passers cancelled and for them to retake the exams.
They questioned the appellate court’s
decision to have its ruling carried out immediately despite a
motion for reconsideration that they had filed. They pointed out
that letting high scores in some subjects pull up poor scores in
others, a measure used to offset the effect of the leaked
questions, violated the competency rule that says each examinee
must earn a grade of at least 60 percent in every subject.
The CA decision called for a selective retake
of the nursing licensure exam among those whose names were
belatedly added to the list of successful examinees due to the
recomputation of scores.
Some 42,600 students took the nursing exam last July 11 and
12; only 17,821 passed. – Jocelyn Montemayor and
Evangeline de Vera
