Cheating in October 2008 police exams uncovered

MANILA, Philippines - The National Police Commission (Napolcom) has nullified the results of its October 2008 police entrance and promotional examinations after it uncovered irregularities that included massive cheating. Napolcom vice chairman Eduardo Escueta said he has ordered the investigation of 130 police officers who took the promotional tests at their testing center in Calamba, Laguna. “Appropriate administrative charges shall be filed against these police officers and shall be meted with administrative sanctions if evidence so warrants," he said. The Commission en banc also barred the 495 examinees from Calamba, Laguna, Koronadal City, Cotobato City, Zamboanga City, National Capital Region, Davao City, Butuan City, and San Fernando, La Union from re-taking the Philippine National Police (PNP) entrance and promotional examinations, which are given twice year. Escueta said extensive analysis of the exam results showed the existence of “common answer pattern" in the answer sheets of 53 examinees for senior police officer exam from Room 88 and 45, and for police officer exam from Room 69. This is “indicative of widespread cheating," the Napolcom official said, adding that such occurrence was “statistically improbable." In similar findings, Napolcom also nullified the exam results of 365 civilian examinees at the Laguna Testing Center, and at Koronadal City, Cotobato City, Zamboanga City, National Capital Region (NCR), Davao City, Butuan City, and San Fernando, La Union. Escueta bared that during the conduct of the examinations, an examinee was caught using a cellular phone that contained text messages of purported answers to the examination questions. A deeper investigation would be conducted by the Napolcom to trace the source of the cheating and the possible involvement of police and Napolcom insiders, Escueta said. To avoid the recurrence of the irregularities, Escueta said cellular phones would be banned in all testing centers starting on May 31. - GMANews.TV