An official of West Negros College said yesterday that of the 599 nursing graduates awaiting the long delayed release of their board examination results, 79.46 percent of 476 passed with one examinee topping the score of the number one passer.

WNC vice president Ernesto Arbolario said Dr. Pearl Pedroso of Iloilo, one of their graduates who took the nursing board examination in December, passed with a score of 85.4 percent, higher that the highest score garnered among the examinees from other schools whose results had been released earlier.

Yvette Pauline Paragua, 21, a graduate of Ateneo de Davao, was reported to be the topnotcher of the December 2005 board exams with a score of 85.2 percent.

The Board of Nursing and the Professional Regulation Commission officials had agreed to release the WNC results during a House budget hearing last week after they were pressed by legislators to do so. They, however, said this would be without prejudice to the filing of charges against the WNC students.

The BON, which had withheld the WNC nursing graduates' December board examination results because of alleged course overloads, yesterday opened its vault to release their scores.

However, the list of the 476 passers was not available as of press time. Arbolario said WNC expects to get a copy this morning. Pharson Mamalo, PRC legal division head, yesterday told the DAILY STAR the BON has filed administrative charges against more than 700 WNC nursing graduates who applied to take the board examinations in December, including the 599 whose results were released only yesterday.

The charges are for course overloading in violation of Commission on Higher Education rules, he said. This means the board passers will be allowed to take their oaths but will not be given their nurse licenses until the administrative cases are resolved, he said.

A hearing of the administrative charges will be held by the BON in Manila on March 28, he said.

Mamalo said they are also studying the possibility of filing charges against WNC officials.

OATHTAKING SET

Nelia Gonzales, who acts as legal counsel to 145 of her nursing classmates, said what is important is that they now know if they passed or not and will be able to take their oaths.

She said their mass oathtaking is planned to be held on March 11 in Bacolod City.

We will face the administrative charges after that, she said.

Rep. Fergenel Biron (Iloilo, 4th district) said the issue of course overloading is not within the jurisdiction of the PRC but is a matter that should be addressed by the Commission on Higher Education.

He said a formal investigation on the BON and PRC actions will be conducted in the House.

A WNC advisory issued yesterday said the college is thanking everybody who helped make the release of their nursing graduates examination results possible.

"The school, based on this event, would be willing to implement prospective changes to its curriculum, if any, to further enhance the quality of its education," the advisory, a copy of which was sent to the DAILY STAR by Arbolario, said.

"The school would be willing to accept charges , if any, on behalf of its students and examinees, and to continuously coordinate with CHED and PRC, to further improve its nursing degree," it added.

TOP SCORE

Pedroso, 37, and a mother of two, yesterday said she cannot claim to be the topnothcer of December 2005 nursing licensure examination because the scores of the rest of the 476 WNC graduates who passed are not all out yet.

Pedroso, who had worked as a community doctor in Palawan and has a masters degree in tropical medicine, said she decided to become a nurse because it would be the easiest way to go to the United States with her husband and children in a few years' time.

Gonzales said she and Pedroso knew they passed because they were able to get the results yesterday when they went to the PRC office in Manila.*CPG

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