President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has directed the Professional Regulations Commission to resolve the problem that caused its withholding of the nursing board exam results of West Negros College graduates at the earliest possible time.

The president, who was in Iloilo over the weekend, was informed that the CHED and PRC are working on a common position on the matter, Presidential Adviser for Western Visayas Rafael Coscolluela said yesterday.

The President wants an appropriate investigation to be conducted on why the exam results of the WNC graduates had to be withheld and for sanctions to be imposed on whoever is found to have had deficiencies.

Coscolluela yesterday afternoon met with all parties involved in order to come up with a fact folder on the case to submit to the President. Initial information is that only the exam results of 62 WNC graduates were recommended to be withheld. It was not known yet why the exam results of 460 WNC graduates were instead withheld by the PRC.

An Iloilo Regional Trial Court judge is set to hear tomorrow morning a motion filed by WNC nursing graduates asking the court to take custody of their nursing board exam papers and answer sheets, their spokesperson Nelia Jesusa Ligaya-Gonzales said yesterday.

The hearing will be held by Iloilo RTC Branch 22 Judge Guiljie Delfin-Lim.

A petition for mandamus pending before Delfin-Lim had been filed by Gonzales and 145 other WNC graduates against the PRC and the Board of Nursing asking that they release the results of the nursing board exams they took in December.

About 460 WNC graduates have yet to know whether they passed the nursing board exams or not. The WNC graduates in their motion for the court to take custody of their exam documents said they have received information that their examination results can be manipulated by the respondents. There is a danger that the results of their board exams will be changed especially if they passed the examination, they said.

They said they have lost faith and confidence in the credibility and capability of PRC and BON to continue to possess their exam papers.

The petitioners are asking the court to order the PRC and the BON to immediately bring before the court their Applications for Examination and their supporting documents, as well as their examination papers and the answers so they can be placed in court custody in order to preserve their "sanctity and integrity".

They also asked the court to order the PRC to immediately furnish them a certified copy of the report of Lily Ann R. Baldago, PRC regional director, wherein she recommended the withholding of their examination results.

The WNC graduates said after they filed their petition for mandamus last week, Baldago made public admissions through radio and print media that she made a report to the PRC head office where she recommended the withholding of the examination results of the WNC graduates.*CPG

back to top