PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is missing the point. Either that, or she is playing politics -- the very thing she repeatedly asks Filipinos to refrain from for the sake of the country. And she is sowing confusion in the process.
Last Feb. 15, the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools announced that it would not issue VisaScreen certificates—a requirement for health professionals applying for work in the United States -- to those who passed the leak-tainted June 2006 nursing licensure examination unless they again take and pass the equivalent of Tests 3 and 5. The President immediately directed Labor Secretary Arturo Brion to “appeal for a reconsideration of that decision” and “provide financial assistance” to those who wanted to take the tests again.
After talking to some CGFNS officials and consulting his legal staff, Brion ruled out making “a formal appeal,” saying the chances of success were “slim.”
However, Leonor Tripon-Rosero, chair of the Professional Regulatory Commission (PRC), insisted on proceeding with the plan to appeal the decision. And she formed a delegation, independent of Brion’s group, to go to the United States for the purpose.
This prompted Barbara Nichols, chief executive officer of the CGFNS, to call Rosero, apparently to dissuade the latter from proceeding on her hopeless quest. The CGFNS website reported last Saturday that during their telephone conversation, Nichols told Rosero that “no useful purpose would be served” by her going to the United States.
“The CGFNS is not a court or a government agency,” Nichols reminded Rosero. “It is a private, non-profit corporation. The Board of Trustees, the highest authority of that corporation has made this decision. There is no process or provision for an appeal or reconsideration of a Board decision. There is no higher authority than the Board of Trustees.”
Two days ago, Malacañang officials sounded as if they had accepted the CGFNS decision as final. When asked what was the Palace’s reaction to the decision, Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Sergio Apostol told reporters: “Isn’t it what the Palace has said: ‘Take the exam if you want to go to the US?’” Dante Ang, chair of the Commission on Overseas Filipinos, exhorted Rosero against raising “false hopes.” The appeal, if there be one, he said, should only demonstrate “our sympathy for the 17,000" examinees who passed "... But we should not give false hopes to our nurses given the statement of the CGFNS.”
Ang should have given the advice to his boss first. A Malacañang announcement issued the next day said the President had given her blessings to a congressional delegation, headed by Rep. Monico Puentevella of Bacolod City, that was going to the United States to make “a last-ditch appeal.”
Why the sudden volte-face? Has the administration struck a deal with the CGFNS? Or is the President simply trying to earn brownie points with the new nurses and their relatives and friends?
The administration is “just exhausting all options,” Presidential Chief of Staff Joey Salceda said. He added that even basketball player James Yap had been given several chances by Kris Aquino to save their marriage.
Couldn’t Salceda find a better way to explain Malacañang’s flip-flopping than such a tasteless remark? This is not about forgiveness and mercy. The issue here is competence, the lack of which can spell the difference between life and death for patients. The CGFNS is only being faithful to its mandate. If we cannot be as professional as that, if we cannot take health care as seriously, the last thing we should do is to advertise it by persuading others to lower their own professional standards.
The cheating in the June 2006 nursing board exam was more than enough embarrassment for the nation. It adds to our embarrassment that it is the CGFNS now showing us the way to a respectable, decent and professional resolution of this cheating scandal, and ultimately to redeeming the reputation of Filipino nurses.
The CGFNS is telling everyone how to “move on” after the cheating-marred June 2006 nursing exam. Unfortunately, some people in government, including the President, cannot resist the opportunity to play politics again.
