Retired teacher, 4 others are 'acting' nursing board execs

Five days after the Court of Appeals paved the way for the oath-taking of new nurses, Malacañang on Tuesday announced the appointment of an "outstanding" but retired academician as chairperson, and four other persons as members, of the Board of Nursing (BoN) -- all in acting capacity only. With just a month go, the new appointees will administer the exams retake for a total of 1,687 examinees on December 2 and 3, on account of the leakage that marred the June 2006 tests. Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita announced the appointments on Tuesday, adding that the Office of the President was still awaiting the names of two more nominees from concerned agencies. Named acting BoN chair was Carmencita Abaquin, "Outstanding Professional in Nursing" awardee of the University of the Philippines College of Nursing (UPCN) last June.

Abaquin had taught both in the undergraduate and graduate programs of the UPCN and retired last June after 41 years of service. She continues to serve as a lecturer at the college. Also appointed as acting members of the Board of Nursing were Leonila Faire, Betty Merritt, Perla Po and Marco Antonio Sto. Tomas. Merritt was a former president of the UPCN Alumni Association Inc. Sto. Tomas is vice president of the Association of Deans of the Philippine Colleges of Nursing. The five appointees would replace Eufemia Octaviano as chairman and Remedios Fernandez, Letty Kuan, Estelita Galutira, Anesia Dionisio and Virginia Madeja as members. The previous seven-person board resigned amid a series of investigations on the leakage-ridden June 2006 Nurse Licensure Examination (NLE). The Palace, in turn, accepted their resignations in early October. Dionisio and Madeja have been charged for allegedly leaking questions included in Tests 3 and 5 of the June nursing examinations. Police authorities arrested Madeja in Taguig City last September 22 for reportedly extorting money from job applicants who want to work as nurses in the United States. She has pleaded not guilty. Ermita said President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signed the appointment papers of the new board members on October 27, before she left for a five-day official visit to China. The day before, the Court of Appeals ruled that there was "no legal impediment" for the nurses' oath-taking since the 60-day temporary restraining order against this had already expired. Thousands of new nurses have already been allowed to take their oath at the PRC main office in Manila, as well as at the agency's regional bureaus. Mrs Arroyo had ordered a revamp of the BoN as early as last August 28, in an apparent effort to defuse the nursing leakage controversy. She had earlier ordered that the PRC be placed under the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). Nursing review centers around the country, meanwhile, have been placed under the supervision of the Commission on Higher Education. In a related development, Ermita directed the anti-fraud and computer crimes division of the National Bureau of Investigation to finish "soon" its investigation into the scandal. He said the NBI probe should be completed before the scheduled retake. The NBI has yet to reconcile the names of the students who took review classes at the Inress, Gapuz and Pentagon review centers, whose enrollees allegedly benefited from the leaked questions. Additional students would likely have to retake the exams once the NBI has established the identities of those who had enrolled with the three review centers. Ermita said Malacañang could not blame the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS) if the group remains skeptical of nursing students who took their oaths and obtained their licenses on the basis of the June 2006 nursing examinations. He insisted, though, that the government has done everything it could to restore the integrity of the nursing profession. - Joan Dairo, GMANews.TV