Indecisive

There she goes again, flip-flopping on a major decision.

After announcing that she saw no need for the latest batch of nursing graduates to retake the board exams, President Arroyo has changed her mind and decided that there must be new exams after all.

It’s not the first time that the President has made a dramatic flip-flop in decision-making during her incumbency. She famously announced she would not run in the May 2004 race, only to prove skeptics right by announcing months later that she would join the race after all.

Okay, maybe women and politicians have a right to change their minds, as US President George W. Bush reportedly told the Philippine President (although this story is unconfirmed). But after nearly six years in power, President Arroyo should know how flip-flopping weakens her credibility.

By now she should also know enough to tell her officials to stop squabbling in public, to really and truly speak with one voice, and to express her views when they do speak.

The President, a former professor, is supposed to be a taskmaster. She bangs her fist on the table when she is unhappy with a report submitted to her. She scolds her officials in public. So next time she opens her mouth on a controversy, she should make sure her position is backed by thorough homework done by her officials.

And she should make sure the squabbling among her officials would have been settled by the time she announces her decision, so she won’t have to make a turnaround weeks later.

I hesitate to describe as "embarrassing" any turnaround by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo because this President does not seem to embarrass easily. But a strong, decisive leader should be embarrassed by flip-flopping on any issue.

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It is even more embarrassing when the head of the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC), whose direct supervision was transferred only recently from the Office of the President to the Department of Labor and Employment, announces that she’d rather wait for a formal order regarding the nursing exams from the Court of Appeals, thank you, instead of bowing immediately to the Chief Executive.

Did anyone mention to the President that the nursing exam controversy is under litigation?

The head of the PRC, which administered the nursing licensure exams last June, is opposed to new exams. This stand in turn is opposed by at least three of the President’s officials: Education Secretary Jesli Lapus, Labor Secretary Arturo Brion and Chairman Dante Ang of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas.

Ang in particular was reportedly disappointed that the scandal led to the freezing of the country’s bid to set up a testing center here for Filipinos wanting to work as nurses in the United States.

When this scandal erupted, there were calls for the replacement of top officials of the PRC, which has been plagued with similar controversies involving licensure examinations for other professions in the past years.

Instead the President said PRC chief Leonor Rosero would keep her job and there was no need for new nursing board exams.

It took a few more weeks — and a Cabinet meeting — before the President decided that the nursing exams must be retaken to save the integrity of the country’s nursing profession.

Now she has had to reassure the public that she is not about to change her mind again and reverse her order.

So far there has been no final word on the fate of Rosero, said to be a former dentist of the President. Perhaps the President will also change her mind about the PRC chief.

Rosero has given no indication that she intends to step down. Since all public officials in this country lack the delicadeza to quit when embroiled in a scandal, the President can simply give Rosero the usual fulsome praise before kicking her out.

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In reversing her own decision, the President is indicating that she made a mistake. There is virtue in the ability to admit mistakes. And requiring everyone to retake the tainted board exams, though unfair to those who did not cheat, does make sense since those who actually cheated and benefited from the leaked test questions cannot be identified.

The administration should always promote the integrity of professional licensure examinations in this country, especially because a tenth of the entire population is working overseas. Nurses are among our biggest exports, and tainted board exams can only put at risk the demand overseas for Philippine nurses.

The country cannot afford to keep having cheating scandals. This President already has a problem taking the moral high ground when it comes to cheating. Ousted Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra accused us of cheating his country’s athletes in the Southeast Asian Games.

But the President also cannot risk making flip-flopping a hallmark of her tenure, no matter what Bush might have told her.

Bush should still remember how that flip-flopping hurt his administration in Iraq. One night President Arroyo reiterated her commitment to the US ambassador at the time, Francis Ricciardone, that the tiny Philippine humanitarian contingent was staying put in Iraq despite the abduction of truck driver Angelo de la Cruz by Iraqi militants.

At daybreak, Ricciardone was roused from his sleep by Washington and told to watch CNN. That was when he learned that the Philippine contingent was being pulled out to save De la Cruz. Ricciardone was promptly summoned to Washington for "consultations."

Has Washington forgotten that abrupt turnaround? Ricciardone’s replacement, Kristie Kenney, says they have moved on.

Moving on, however, may not necessarily mean forgetting. There is bound to be some lingering doubt about the reliability of President Arroyo’s commitments and the integrity of her word.

Those doubts can only be reinforced by flip-flopping on major controversies.

President Arroyo is at her best when she comes off tough and decisive. During her recent stopover in Hawaii, an American journalist told me how impressed he was that before different audiences and in media interviews, the Philippine President stayed strictly on message, never wavering on her views on various issues.

They didn’t ask her in Hawaii about the nursing board exam scandal. Indecisiveness makes for weak leadership. And weak leadership makes for a weak republic.