Nursing exec in test leak seeks acquittal
A former Board of Nursing official has asked the Sandiganbayan to acquit her of criminal charges for allegedly leaking test questions for the 2006 nursing licensure examination.
Anesia Dionisio, who was earlier ordered dismissed from the service, said in her memorandum before the antigraft court’s Fourth Division that the prosecution failed to present any evidence to show that she had leaked the test questions or had violated the law.
Dionisio was one of two officials earlier charged with violation of the Professional Regulation Commission law and of the antigraft law for allegedly divulging questions in the psychiatric nursing portion of the 2006 licensure exam.
The ensuing scandal had put almost all the examinees under a cloud of doubt, prompting many of them to retake the tests.
Dionisio’s case is handled by the Sandiganbayan Fourth Division, and she recently submitted her memorandum to the court. Memoranda are usually submitted after the parties have finished presenting their evidence.
In her memorandum filed through her lawyers, Dionisio said there was no evidence to link her to the alleged leak of test questions, and it was clearly shown that there were other possible sources of the leaked materials.
She said the testimonies of the witnesses that the prosecution presented were just hearsay because they did not have personal knowledge about the source of the supposed leaked documents.
According to her, the prosecution witnesses only testified that they obtained copies of the alleged leaked materials from other nursing licensure examinees.
She further said the prosecution did not present a single examinee or a person who could claim to have directly received copies of the supposedly leaked materials prior to the examination date. Their testimony would have proved the actual leakage as well as its source, she added.
“The importance of the testimonies of the examinees cannot be ignored in this case as they can prove not only the source of the alleged ‘leaked materials’ but also that the said materials were obtained prior to the actual conduct of the NLE (nursing licensure examination),” she said.
Dionisio said the fact that it was not shown that she was the source of the supposed leakage was enough to acquit her of the charges.
She also contended that the accusation that she leaked the exam questions only stemmed from her being the examiner for the psychiatric nursing portion of the test, but it failed to consider that there were other persons who had access to the test questions before the exam.
There were also other possible sources of the test questions aside from her, but the prosecution turned a blind eye to them, she complained.
