WHOLESALE INVALDIATION OF NURSING EXAMS
UNFAIR TO THE INNOCENT -- PIMENTEL

Saying that the innocent must be spared from punishment, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Nene Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today said that the Professional Regulatory Commission (PRC) should exhaust efforts in determining who among the examinees in the latest nursing licensure examinations benefitted from the leaked questions and answers.

Pimentel took this position even as the Professional Regulatory Commission announced that successful examinees can take their oath as licensed nurses in any PRC office despite the fact that congressional investigation into the leak is still going on.

The innocent must not be made to suffer the same fate as the guilty. What is important now is for the authorities to pinpoint the identities of those responsible for the leakage of the examination questions for nurses, he said.

The Senate, according to the senator from Mindanao, should insist on calling the PRC officials concerned to appear before the proper Senate committee.

If they do not appear, they should be ordered detained for being in contempt of the Senate, he said.

Pimentel said the government, much less the Senate, should not allow this incident to pass as if everything is alright.

Cheating demeans the integrity of the nursing profession in general, he said. The guilty must be punished even as the innocent must not be lumped together with them. The innocent must be allowed to enjoy the glory of their honest achievement.