No to retake prayer
rally set as final GMA ruling awaited
BY CARLA GOMEZ

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo listened to the position of those opposed to a retake of the nursing board examination, including those of Negrense passers and officials, at a luncheon meeting in Malacañang yesterday.

Bacolod Rep. Monico Puentevella and Board of Nursing chairperson Eufemia Octaviano, who were at the meeting, said the president was under the impression that there was not much opposition to the retake because the voices she had been hearing so far were those pushing for the retake due to an alleged leak of the test questions.

Bacolod SP backs
nursing passers stand
BY CARLA GOMEZ

The Bacolod Sangguniang Panlungsod yesterday approved an omnibus resolution supporting the call of successful nursing graduates and passers of the 2006 nursing board examinations and their parents not to have a retake of the exams or any portion of it.

The resolution also called on the President to recall the order to retake, or at least, to exempt the nursing graduates and passers Visayas and Mindanao, who did not study in the indicated review schools, from having to take the exams.

It also incorporated into the resolution one authored by Councilor Marx Louie de la Rosa which appealed to the President to allow the release of the Nursing Board Licenses to nursing students, who had taken and passed the exams, and to vigorously continue the investigation on the alleged leakage during the June 2006 Nursing Licensure Exams.

'NPA men injured
in battle with RPA'
BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN

An encounter between fighters of rival communist rebel factions yesterday led to injuries of an undetermined number of New People's Army rebels in Calatrava, Negros Occidental, Lt. Col. Felicisimo Budiongan, Task Group North commander, said yesterday.

The chance encounter happened almost a week after the capture of Dionesio Sabanal and Rowell Vergara, squad leader and finance officer of platoon 2, Larangan Gerilya 3, respectively, in Brgy. Bandila, Toboso. Budiongan said the 5-minute encounter took place between Revolutionary Proletarian Army fighters and about 30 comrades of Sabanal led by Ka Hildo in Sitio Agaloos, Brgy. Agpangi, Calatrava, ay about 5 p.m. yesterday.