Government action on nursing exam leakage punishes the victims, absolves the criminals

“The handling of the government on the nursing leakage mess remains to be absolving the criminals who orchestrated the leakage while putting extra burden on our already stressed-out nurses. We are yet to see people made accountable for their role in the test leakage.”

This was the reaction today by Elmer “Ka Bong” Labog, National Chairperson of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) Labor Center on the moves of Malacañang to appeal the decision of the US agency Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS) to ban Filipino nurses who took the June 2006 Nursing Licensure Exam.

“Unless justice is served and the culprits made to pay for their actions, the possibility of other countries banning our nurses is very possible. Other countries will always notice a shadow of doubt hovering over the nurses who took the June 2006 exam and this will placed unjust burden on them,” said Labog.

“How much grease money did the culprits released to make the government look the other way? Could they be contributing funds for the campaign kitty of Arroyo this 2007 election? Questions are coming out faster than answers being provided,” opine Labog.

“Instead of pushing our health workers to work outside the country, the roadmap should be to make them stay by providing better remunerations. Money should be pumped in the health sector to provide higher pay for government medical workers while a substantial wage increase should be provided for medical workers in particular and workers in general,” stated Labog.

“We believe that our medical workers would think twice of leaving the country if they are properly remunerated here. But with the government neglect of the health sector, our medical professionals are forced to make hard decisions of leaving their families and eek a living far from the comforts of their loved ones,” ended Labog.