DUE TO MARITIME EXAM SCANDAL : NBI to sue PRC execs

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is poised to file charges against officials of the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) in connection with the recent Maritime Officers examination after it established that an answer code in at least one of the several multiple choice test categories was leaked out.

The NBI Special Action Unit (SAU) said it is only waiting for some documents to finalize its report and file the charges.

"The problem is that the PRC is taking too long to give us the needed documents," complained NBI probers.

The answer code was verified by the NBI in the Chief Mate test after an NBI investigator answered the questions using it and got a 90-plus percent score.

"At the very least we have established that there was cheating with this discovery. The next step is linking this code to the people concerned," said an NBI source. The NBI unit, under lawyer Edmund Arugay, expressed confidence that they will be able to pin down the culprits.

The NBI started investigating the case a month after the test or mid-July after it received a tip from an examinee linking the Marco Review Center, located in Intramuros, Manila, to an alleged PRC exam leakage.

The NBI said the review center denied the charges. The review center topped all categories in the examinations with its reviewers taking the top five positions by scoring no less than 90-percent in the tests.

Using the code, questions A to M were answered correctly by picking the longest answer in the multiple choice. Questions N to Z, by picking the shortest.

"For an NBI agent like me to get 90-percent without even taking the course is amazing, right?" said the NBI agent who used the code. Apparently the code was deliberately made not perfect so it would not be obvious, said probers.

"We have also received tips that in other test categories, some examinees were given a 120-item reviewer on the eve of the examination and 100 of the items did come out in the test," said the NBI.

Other than the Chief Mate test, the examinations also included those for 2nd, 3rd and 4th officers, and other positions. Filipino sailors comprise the bulk of ship crews all over the world.