From whom did they
learn to cheat?

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor NANETTE L. GUADALQUIVER Busines Editor ERIC T. LORETIZO Sports Editor (On Leave) RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

Has cheating become a norm in our country? It seems accusations of cheating continue to be raised in practically every sector here. We hear of cheating in business, in examinations, in elections, and even in sports. The lamentable thing is that not all of those cases of cheating are resolved, and, so far none of those involved have been punished.

The case of the cheating that has been determined to take place in the nursing board examination is just one of the evidences that dishonesty is becoming more and more rampant here. Until now, the charges that questions to be asked in the June, 2006 professional examination for nurses had been leaked have not yet been resolved. But perhaps the latest one could be said to have been encouraged by an earlier examination when attempts by nursing officials to zero in on some alleged irregularities in the manner in which some graduates had acquired their degrees, were nipped in the bud with the intervention of politicians, waving their unreleased budget over their heads. To this day, the controversy over the June 2006 leakage scam and its impact on all the examinees, whether benefited by the leak or not, continues.

But our concern now is the disclosure only yesterday of the results of an investigation into the charges of cheating in the holding of the latest Palaro Games in which athletes from all over the country's schools had participated. The parent of an athlete from the National Capital Region had charged that some members of the baseball team from Mindanao were overaged, and investigation had confirmed it. The only thing to be decided on now is how many officials and athletes of the delegation are to be charged for dishonesty, falsification of public documents, etc.

Now, this is not the first time such dishonesty in student sports had been discovered. The most shameful one that involved the entire country was the one in the Little League series, played in the United States, where our team won the championship, only to be denounced and dethroned later when several of our players were proven to be overaged. As mentioned earlier, cheating seems to have become a norm in many aspects of life in this country. But where did our young athletes learn that it could pay when the act is not discovered and exposed?*