PRC chief blames Brion, Ang for confusion over retake issue on exam leakage

The dispute over the controversial nursing licensure examinations between Labor Secretary Arturo Brion and Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) Chairman Leonor Tripon-Rosero apparently worsened yesterday after the word war between the two officials escalated in separate Senate hearings.

Rosero blamed Brion and Dante Ang, head of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas, for the confusion over whether Malacañang will order a retake of the test.

Rosero said Brion has been "intruding" on PRC affairs while Ang was lying when he proclaimed during media interviews that the nursing test controversy prompted United States-based hospitals to stop hiring Filipino nurses.

"Up to this time, our stand is no retake. It is those other people who are intruding and doing demolition job against the PRC," said Rosero in response to the query of Sen. Franklin Drilon, chairman of the Senate committee on finance.

When asked by Drilon who those other people were, Rosero said she was referring to Brion and Ang.

She maintained that the issue should be resolved by the court, and not by the executive department.

Unless barred by a permanent injunction order, a defiant Rosero insisted yesterday that she will order the oathtaking of the 17,821 nurses who passed the controversial licensure examinations held nationwide last June 11 and 12. The temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by the Court of Appeals will lapse on Oct. 18.

After the PRC budget hearing, senators confronted Brion who was attending his confirmation hearing at the Commission on Appointments, also at the Senate.

On the questioning of Sen. Richard Gordon, Brion said the PRC should be held responsible for "inaction, negligence or omission," which he intends to look into after the nursing controversy is resolved.

Brion vowed to look into the PRC’s liability and would make a proper recommendation to the Office of the President. "We just want to finish this so that the examinees can move on," Brion said.

President Arroyo had issued an order recently placing the PRC under the jurisdiction of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE)

Brion said the executive department can act on the issue by reviewing PRC resolution 31 which rejected a retake of the licensure examinations.

"If a retake is ordered, that retake can be ordered only if resolution number 31 shall have been declared invalid," Brion said. "There is nothing for chairman Rosero to act upon even if the TRO lapses."

Rosero was optimistic that the PRC’s no retake stance will stand the scrutiny of the Court of Appeals.

"Because that (retake) is the one that we gave the Solicitor General. That was upheld by the Solicitor General’s office during hearings in the Court of Appeals," Drilon said.

Drilon noted the legal opinion of the Solicitor General was important since it is the counsel of government including the executive branch.

Brion disagreed with both Drilon and Rosero, saying that the Solicitor General’s move is distinct from the executive since the latter is concerned with protecting national interest.

Drilon had scolded Rosero for the confusing announcements on the nursing issue at the budget hearing.

"What is now the final decision on the nursing board exam?... The public is so confused as to what you are doing... This does not speak well of your commission. In other words, you have practically lost control of the solution to this problem," Drilon told Rosero during the budget hearings at the Senate.

Drilon chaired the hearings for the P349-million budget of the PRC where Rosero expressed her apparent misgivings over the President’s Executive Order 565 which delegated her powers to supervise the PRC to the DOLE.

"Putting the PRC under the supervision of the DOLE, it is now the secretary of labor that is the one saying that there should be a retake. But even though he is saying that, our stand is still no retake," Rosero said.

Rosero said she is not comfortable with Mrs. Arroyo’s executive order, calling it "improper."

"We do not agree with the EO," she said.

Rosero reiterated that the PRC would wait for the decision of the CA on the issue before it acts on the fate of some 17,821 nurses who passed the licensure examinations.

In the same hearing, Rosero also disputed the claims of Ang, who is also president of the Task Force on the National Council Licensing Examination (NCLEX), that the US has rejected the entry of Filipino nurses as a result of the controversy.

In a statement, Sen. Edgardo Angara said Malacañang could have erred in announcing that the President will order a retake of the nursing exams.

"They should have withheld the announcement until they have all the facts. There should have been an organized investigation first before Malacañang made their announcement. But the PRC has a bigger fault here," Angara said.

New nurses rally

This developed as thousands of nursing graduates who passed the controversial board examinations last June held a rally at Liwasang Bonifacio in Manila and other parts of the country yesterday morning to urge the President to stop the proposed retake of the licensure test.

They admitted that some of the advocates of the "no retake policy" are now losing hope of getting justice.

Victor Tan, one of the convenors of the group, said they will raise the issue to the Supreme Court in case the Court of Appeals orders a retake of the examinations that were held on June 11 and 12 nationwide.

Tan said the 2,000 nurses, parents, and supporters that joined the Liwasang Bonifacio demonstration, came from different nursing schools in Metro Manila with others coming all the way from Ilocos, Pampanga, Iloilo and Baguio City.

Simultaneous rallies were also held by examinees in Bacolod, Cebu, Cagayan de Oro, Davao and Dagupan, to oppose the retake of the test.

They displayed banners and streamers which read: "Justice for Nurses of June 2006, No Retake, Retake is not a Solution and Never an Option, and Hirap, Dugo, Luha Tiniis Naming mga Magulang, Hanggang Ngayon pa ba Naman?"

Speakers who used the roof of a passenger jeepney as a stage, took turns lambasting Mrs. Arroyo and some government officials.

Organizers of the Liwasang Bonifacio rally said they mustered some 3,000 rallyists, but police placed the number at less than a thousand.

"Konti lang ang may gusto ng retake. Saan ang hustisya kung pakukuhanin na naman ang mga naghirap na board passers?" asked another rallyist.

The rallyists said the leakage did not come from the examinees. The leaked questions could have been passed to certain individuals during the review sessions at some review centers but it doesn’t follow that the examinees were involved in the scandal.

"With regards to the issue that all review centers are not regulated by any government agency, it is not the fault of the graduates but the lack of management by the government to monitor and suppress such incidents and violations, by allowing such centers to operate without supervision," the group said in a statement released to media.

The group also defended the PRC that opposes a retake after the agency had done adequate measures to see to it that nobody benefited from the leakage which preserved the integrity of the examination.

They also denied that hospitals are rejecting the applications of nurses that passed the June 2006 board examinations.

They also belied allegations that the NCLEX for nurses may not be held in the Philippines because of the nursing exam scandal.

NCLEX officials had announced that the council is concerned with the political stability of the country and not the leakage controversy, the rallyists said.

"To make it clear, NCLEX is the examination taken by those who want to pursue their nursing careers in the US and it has nothing to do with the local examination given by different countries," the group said.

The alliance vowed to raise the issue to the Supreme Court if the Court of Appeals orders a retake of the examinations.

"Lalaban kami hanggang wakas. Kahit abutin pa ‘to ng ilang taon. Our only hope is to realize our dreams of working as nurses to serve the people," the group said before they dispersed peacefully after 12 noon.

More protests

In Nueva Ecija, hundreds of residents and members of the Alliance of June 2006 Nurses-Nueva Ecija chapter marched in Cabanatuan City to protest the proposed retake of the board examinations.

Faith Infante, president of the alliance chapter, appealed to Mrs. Arroyo not to order a retake and consider the examinees victims of the leakage so that justice will prevail.

She said the 427 examinees from Nueva Ecija that passed the board examinations and their supporters are united in the "no retake stand."

"Some of them have even sold their carabaos, pawned their property, and had siblings quit school so the family can support the four years of nursing school, review, and licensure exam and now this injustice to punish the people that were falsely accused," Infante said.

Residents of Bohol formed yesterday the Boholanos Against Retake of the Nursing Exams (BAROG) to urge the President to stop the retake of the board examinations.

BAROG was organized by officers and faculty of the University of Bohol and the Holy Name University.

During the group’s meeting last Friday, the 250 nursing graduates of the two local universities who passed the board examinations, together with their parents, supporters, and teachers, condemned the perpetrators of the leakage.

The protesting nursing graduates from various parts of the country have vowed to stage more rallies to stop the President from ordering a retake of the controversial nursing board examinations.

The leakage in the licensure test was not the first time that such an anomaly rocked the Philippines.

In the 2003 Bar, questions on Mercantile Law were leaked out, creating chaos in the law profession. Just like in nursing, debates erupted on how the controversy could be resolved.

A retake of the Mercantile Law test was set on Oct. 4, 2003 but the Supreme Court was swarmed with various petitions on how to deal with the leakage.

The decision of the SC stated that the "court observed that although petitioners/movants have agreed to the nullification of the bar examinations in Mercantile Law, they, however, have expressed strong reservations against the holding of another examination on the subject."

The Mercantile Law test covered the law on insurance, transportation, partnerships, negotiable instruments, credit transactions, banking and corporation law. — With Aurea Calica, Sandy Araneta, Sheila Crisostomo, Nestor Etolle, Peter Dejaresco, Mayen Jaymalin