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The mediocrity of a token investigation

KAREN CALDERON
Media Liason

July 14, 2006

There is nothing to be happy about in the result of the PRC investigation on the nursing board examination leakage.

The Professional Regulation Commission (PRC), in its findings released on 13 July 2006, confirmed that the recently concluded licensure examination for nurses was indeed marred by leakage. The PRC identified two members of the Board of Nursing (BON) who were involved in the leakage but the two were not named. They were relieved from the checking of the examination papers and will be charged administratively. The PRC referred its findings to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in order that the officials and all others involved in the leakage may be prosecuted.

The PRC has no probative value. After weeks of apparent inaction, it came up with an unsatisfactory resolution. Despite confirming the leakage – a fact that was known to it long before it was pressured to act, a fact that it dispelled even when it already had the evidence that proved leakage – the PRC left more questions than answers when it did not name the two BON members who were involved in the leakage. By not naming them, the PRC unfairly compromised the four other BON members who had no hand in the leakage. It is not enough to merely relieve the two BON members from examination matters when their grave malfeasance caused extensive damage to the examinees and ruined the integrity of the entire nursing profession. They should have at least been suspended.

The PRC said that the results of the board examinations will be released in two week’s time. This is alarming as the PRC gave no clear resolution as to what would be done to the examination questions that were leaked. That the exact number of questions that were leaked has not yet been determined makes the issue of the leakage more intricate than the PRC apparently thought. It should have had an investigation that is more extensive, more competent, and more resolute than that which it conducted. The truth behind the leakage is even more imperative than the examination results especially that the hitherto unresolved leakage issue has manifestly rendered such board results unreliable even when they have not yet been released.

The PRC’s mediocre probe impels us to render its investigation as a mere token. Was PRC unable to discern the extent to which the leakage smeared the nursing profession for it not to pay heed to the issue seriously and sincerely? Or did it choose to pretend to be blind because it was engaged into something worth casting doubt on? As what was previously alleged, the PRC seemed to know the details of the leakage issue and the persons involved even before complaining parties pressured it to act on the issue. Whatever took the PRC so long to pinpoint the persons involved? And why did it waste time to “investigate” only to give a report that left more questions than answers in the end? Who are the two BON members involved? What happens to the leaked examination questions? What fate awaits the poor examinees? These queries could have been answered had the PRC been relentless in its investigation. Its failure to deliver justice, or at least to aid in the delivery of it, exacerbated the problem.

Notwithstanding the PRC’s futility, we remain steadfast in our struggle to unravel the truth and to uphold the integrity of the nursing profession. We gain more strength from the support of concerned groups and individuals. The members of the Philippine Nurses Association in the United States express solidarity with this struggle. Yesterday, the Coalition of Concerned Nurses for Justice and Integrity was convened to support our quest. WE SHALL OVERCOME! #

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