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By Jomar Canlas Reporter
THE Department of Justice
exonerated almost all of the accused in the June 2006 nursing exams
that was tainted with leakage. However, The Manila Times received
reports that a local official from Iloilo “maneuvered the
dismissal of the case” and eventually earned the ire of the
daughter of Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez.
According to a source of The
Times, the Iloilo official moved for the dismissal of the case
without it passing the regular channels of the Justice department
prosecutors in the petition for review cases. There were several
errors in the resolution, both typographical and sentence
construction, showing it was rushed and “elevated” from its
regular ladder.
This got Dr. Marigold Gonzalez,
the Justice secretary’s daughter, mad towards the Iloilo official
for meddling in the affairs of the department.
Two review
centers cleared
Nonetheless, Gonzalez, in a
10-page resolution promulgated on February 5, dismissed for lack of
probable cause the indictment against Ricarte Gapuz Jr., Ma. Elena
Gapuz-Altarejos and Jonna Bucud for violation of Republic Act 8981
or “An Act Modernizing the Professional Regulations Commission.”
Gapuz is the owner of the Gapuz
Review Center while Altarejos and Bucud are its drillmasters.
It pointed out that the sole
proof against the three anchored merely on the insinuation of the
reviewees that the leakage materials came from Gapuz Review.
With this, “there is no direct
link or connection as to the involvement of Gapuz Review from the
alleged leakage materials… evidence failed to show that Gapuz
Review had an iota of having manipulated the exam.”
As to respondents Gerardo Andamo,
Glenn Luansing, Michael Jimenez, Jerome Balisnomo and Ferdinand
Valdez of the Pentagon Review Center, the resolution stated that
“considering that the investigation for their involvement was
referred back to the National Bureau of Investigation, we are but
constrained to uphold the undertaking of dismissing the complaint
against them for insufficiency of evidence for the finding of
probable cause.”
Only accused George Cordero of
Inress Review Center was charged for violation of Section 15 (a) of
RA 8981 on the basis of the testimony of reviewee Dennis Bautista,
since Cordero was present during the final coaching of the said
review center.
Gonzalez’s ruling modified the
findings and indictment of the panel prosecutors headed by State
Prosecutor Roseanne Balauag, which in August 2007 ruled that there
was probable cause to file charges against the persons involved.
The prosecutors pointed out that
from the documentary evidence submitted by the parties, it can be
inferred that the June 11 and 12 Nursing Licensure Examinations was
marred by a systematic leakage of examination questions.
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