Senate to issue subpoenas, arrest warrants to Cabinet officials who snub hearings

The Senate will not hesitate to issue subpoenas and warrants of arrest to Cabinet officials who continuously snub the Senate inquiry on the nursing exam leakage and other investigations, Senate President Manuel Villar Jr. said yesterday.

Villar said the Senate is doing its best to deal with the non-appearance of witnesses through diplomacy so that officials who will later be issued arrest warrants cannot say that lawmakers harassed them.

He said the Senate is giving everybody a chance to explain his or her side. "But we cannot just allow anybody to ignore the Senate as it performs its legislative function," he said.

Senators moved last Wednesday that Cabinet officials should explain before the investigating committee why they are not attending the inquiries.

Senators are disappointed that most of the government officials, including Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) Chairwoman Leonor Tripon-Rosero, have ignored the past two hearings on the nursing exam leakage, invoking Memorandum Circular 108 issued by Malacañang.

Cabinet officials have also ignored the hearings conducted by the Senate on the alleged misuse of Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration (OWWA) funds.

Sen. Richard Gordon urged the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) yesterday to dig deeper into the controversy involving the Nursing Licensure Examination last June.

Gordon expressed belief that there may be other people involved in the leakage other than Arsenia Dionisio and Virginia Madeja, members of the Board of Nursing (BON), who were found liable for criminal charges by the NBI.

The two BON members, he said, may only be fall guys.

Fearing an alleged cover-up, Gordon said the NBI should focus not only on Dionisio and Madeja but also the other culprits.

"Why does it seem like we are back to square one despite the lapse of over a month from the time this matter was brought to the NBI for further investigation? Are we any closer to determining the real culprits behind the leakage? Can we already identify the areas, institutions or individuals who were able to secure copies of the leakage materials?" Gordon asked.

In its own fact-finding report, the PRC admitted that it did not have the means to determine with finality the scope of the leakage, the culprits behind it, as well as the beneficiaries.

The PRC left it to the NBI to look further into the matter.

Meanwhile, passers of the nursing exams last June are opposing a PRC recommendation that may lead to the eventual demise of review centers.

"Review centers do not only prepare students for licensure test. The centers can also help them hurdle the US National Council for Licensure Examination (NLEX)," said Renato Aquino, head of the Alliance of New Nurses (ANN). — Christina Mendez, Sheila Crisostomo