Author Topic: CULTURE OF CHEATING  (Read 588 times)

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CULTURE OF CHEATING
« on: January 18, 2017, 09:52:02 AM »
CULTURE OF CHEATING
By Atty. Gee Biliran
November 5, 2006 The Bohol Standard

In our previous column, we expressed our consternation over the culture of violence besetting our country today. This time, we pour out our dismay over the country’s culture of cheating.

About 2,000 passers of the 2006 licensure board exam for nurses were able to beat the Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) issued by the Court of Appeals (CA) last Friday. Upon receipt of the TRO by the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) at 4:30 p.m., about 100 passers had yet to take their oaths.

The Petition for a TRO was filed by the University of Sto. Tomas College of Nursing Faculty Association, the League of Concerned Nurses, and the Binuklod na Samahan ng mga Student Nurses (Federation of Student Nurses Organizations). According to the Petitioners, the PRC and the Board of Nursing violated Republic Act 9173 or the Philippine Nursing Act of 2002 by putting the public’s health and safety at risk.

In the TRO, the PRC and the Board of Nursing were directed to cease and desist from proceeding with the oath-taking allegedly scheduled on August 22.

The court said it was issuing the TRO to “preserve the rights of petitioners pending disposition of the subject petition and so as not to render any judgment hereon moot and academic.”

Apparently, the PRC learned about the application for a TRO and, to beat the TRO, hastily conducted the oath-takings in PRC offices in Manila, Cebu, Bacolod and Iloilo. Allegedly, 5 of the topnotchers took their oath in Bacolod.

The PRC admitted that some passers took their oaths immediately after the results came out.

One is made to wonder why the PRC proceeded with the oath- taking, hastily at that, despite the ongoing hullabaloo surrounding the alleged leakage of test questions. Smart alecks. But it isn’t something the PRC should be proud about.

While we sympathize with the passers who did not benefit from the leakage, it would have been a matter of prudence on the part of the PRC to defer the oath-taking until after the issue shall have been resolved.

Now, another dilemma hounds the PRC. What will happen to the 100 nurses who were not able to beat the TRO? Is it not unfair that they were deprived of taking their oaths and licenses simply because they were not as fast as the early birds, even if, like the early birds, they were listed as among the passers?

If I were one of these 100 passers, I would invoke the equal protection clause of the Constitution (all similarly situated should be treated similarly) and pray for any of the 2 alternatives: either nullify the oath-takings already conducted for having been made in bad faith, or allow the remaining 100 to take the oath. Both, under the constitutional mantle of equal protection.

The PRC’s act of beating the TRO smacks with malice. It would come as no surprise if the CA would invalidate the oath-takings conducted before the issuance of the TRO.

We agree with Marco Antonio Sto. Tomas, vice president of the Association of Deans of Philippine Colleges of Nursing, that if and when the courts decide that the decision of the PRC to proceed with the oath-taking despite the unresolved issues is illegal, it would be bloodier, as licenses would be revoked. We agree with the position of Sto. Tomas that the PRC should defer all actions until the investigations are finished.

The PRC’s indifference to calls for investigation of the reported leakage and its disrespect for court processes very well reflect the culture of cheating and the tolerance for such culture now pervading in our country. Apparently, we, Filipinos, have lost our hiya and our delicadeza.

While other erring leaders of other countries would gallantly resign or, in the extreme, commit a hara kiri, all that our leaders do is pin a look of remorse on their faces, albeit unsuccessfully, and say, “Sorry…it was a lapse in judgment.”

Malacañang has opted to distance itself from the controversy. Of course, because it has no moral authority to condemn the leakage. The Secretary of Justice commented that the passers should not be deprived of becoming full-fledged nurses because not all of them benefited from the leakage. We have yet to hear him, though, assail the leakage and promise to send to court the erring officials.

By proceeding with the oath-taking, the PRC has put public health and safety at risk. It would be no wonder if local private hospitals would not accept even those who have taken their oaths. These new nurses would only end up working in the public hospitals and who else would the likely victims be but the poor?

Hospitals outside the country have maintained that they will refuse the 2006 passers any employment. It is doubtful if they would change their stand simply because these passers had managed to take their oaths and secure their licenses.

Hence, it is a loss-loss situation for both the integrity of the nursing profession in the country and the opportunities for jobs here and abroad. The PRC should have instead conducted an investigation or cooperated in any investigation made, punished the erring officials and cleaned up the system, if only to maintain the integrity not only of the nursing profession, but also of the licensure examinations of all professions in the country.

A good start would be for GMA to do more than say sorry for her “lapse in judgment.” An eradication of this culture of cheating should start with the country’s supposed leader.

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