ILOILO CITY - The thunder of Ati-atihan drums, a hearse, protest placards and more than a hundred people wearing black shirts greeted spotlessly dressed nurses who took their oath yesterday in a hotel here.

Those in black, 145 in all, should have been with those who took their nurses' oath but were unable to do so because the Professional Regulations Commission withheld the results of their nursing board examinations last December.

The protesters were among the nursing graduates from West Negros College in Bacolod City, half of whom were professionals who took up nursing as a "second course." The PRC said that 604 names were withheld, pending investigation of discrepancies in their students records, among them overloading or taking more academic courses than what was allowed in one semester.

Remedios Fernandez, a member of the Nursing Board, who presided over the oath taking here yesterday, said that she does not know when PRC will release the withheld exam results. She said an investigation is ongoing, which she cannot discuss, because cases have been filed against the board and PRC.

On Monday, 146 examinees filed two petitions for mandamus before the Iloilo Regional Trial Court for the release of the results of the nursing board examination held Dec. 3 and 4, and, if they passed, to be allowed to take their professional oath. One was filed by lawyer Nelia Jesusa Lingaya-Gonzales, one of the examinees and the spokesperson of the group, and the other by 145 examinees.

The examinees said that the PRC and the Nursing Board's withholding of the test results is "arbitrary, capricious, malicious, whimsical and illegal."

The following day Judge Guilljie Delfin-Lim of Branch 22 of the Regional Trial Court here issued an order asking the Board of Nursing and PRC to answer within ten days.

A PRC regional office press release Monday said that PRC regional director Lily Ann Baldago recommended the investigation of 62 examinees to determine the "truthfulness and validity" of their nursing education.

She noticed that there were excessive loading of courses ranging from 40 to 46 units in one semester; enrollment of pre-requisite subjects at final semester of the course; simultaneous enrollment of pre-requisite subjects and Related Learning Experience and questionable "scrubs" or major and minor surgeries assisted and handled. Baldago sent her recommendations to the Board of Nursing which then sent then to PRC for approval.

Fernandez aid the Board of Nursing, which is attached to PRC, oversees the nursing education and practice.

The PRC's permit to take the nursing licensure examination is conditional, Baldago said. One is allowed to take the examinations but if there are discrepancies in the documents submitted, the examination results are cancelled after a fair hearing, she said.

Baldago said the examinees should be patient because there is an ongoing process of investigating. She said PRC has been talking with Commission on Higher Education and West Negros College. "The PRC is not sleeping on the concern," she said.

But Baldago herself admitted that the investigation may take sometime. For example, when test results of 73 nursing board examinees on Dec. 2004 were withheld, investigation is ongoing to this day.

While the investigation is going on, Fernandez said the test papers of the 604 examinees are kept in the vault. But the examinees said they will ask the court to take hold of the test results for safekeeping instead.

Among the examinees are physicians, lawyers, teachers, computer science graduates, among others.*

back to top