PRC official resigns

Amid allegations of more irregularities in the licensure examination, an official of the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) has resigned from his post.

PRC chair Leonor Rosero yesterday confirmed that PRC Engineering Board chairman Angel Lazaro has submitted his resignation.

Rosero, however, said Lazaro already served for 10 years and his quitting had nothing to do with the controversy over the November 2007 engineering licensure exams.

But when contacted for comment, personnel in Lazaro’s office said they were not aware that he already resigned from his post.

“We have not received any information that he resigned and I don’t think he should resign amid this controversy,” said one employee.

As this developed, Rosero said the PRC is pushing through with the Jan. 12 retake of the November 2007 engineering licensure examination despite a pending petition before the Court of Appeals.

“No changes yet, the retake will push through as scheduled,” Rosero said.

But other PRC officials said the commission is still waiting for the decision of the Court of Appeals (CA) whether to push through with the scheduled Jan. 12 engineering licensure examination retake.

“PRC is still on a wait-and-see situation, we could not yet say whether the retake will push through or not at this time,” said a PRC official, who requested anonymity.

The PRC announced earlier that the retake would be optional but stressed it would not issue licenses to those who would not take the examination again since the results of the previous examination had been nullified.

After discovering anomalies, the PRC nullified the results of the engineering licensure examination held last Nov. 17 and 18 and ordered the 4,782 examinees to retake the tests.

Examinees will retake the examination for two subjects – Hydraulics and Geotechnical Engineering and Structural Engineering and Construction – since results of the previous examination were found “statistically improbable.”

PRC also reported that two examinees were caught in possession of mobile phones that were later found to contain answers to 30 questions in the licensure examination.

The examinees, however, filed a case before the court to stop the retake.