Head of nursing exam task force wants oath-taking voided

The head of the lead agency of a presidential body on nurses’ licensure examinations has asked the courts to nullify the oath-taking of those who passed the controversial tests last June. In a five-page petition, Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) chairman Dante Ang asked the Court of Appeals to order a new examination for Test III and Test V of the 2006 nursing examination which were allegedly tainted with “fraud." The CFO is the lead agency of the Presidential Task Force on National Licensure Examination for Nurses, which was created by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo through Executive Order 550 on July 31. “Considering that a leakage in Test III (medical/surgical nursing) and Test V (neuro-psychiatric nursing) has been established to have occurred in the June 11 and 12, 2006 nursing examination...the results of said examination is tainted with fraud and cannot be a valid basis for determining who passed and did not pass the examination," Ang said. He added that the “timid resolution" of the Professional Regulation Commission and the Nursing Board failed to restore the integrity of the entire test, and "tarnished the reputation of the country as a source of professionally competent nurses." “The proclamation and publication by the respondents of the names of the examinees who have purportedly passed the June 2006 nursing test was without legitimate basis and therefore invalid," Ang further argued. -GMANews.TV