The government will shoulder the examination fee of about P900 each for those who want to retake Test 3 and 5 of the June 2006 nursing licensure examination during the June or December 2007 nursing tests, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said yesterday in a Malacañang press statement.

The Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools had denied the bid of a Philippine delegation headed by Bacolod Rep. Monico Puentevella for reconsideration of its requirement that the passers of the June 2006 Philippine nurse licensure examination retake the leakage-tainted portions of the test.

The CGFNS stressed that the nurses need to retake to be eligible for VisaScreen Certification, an immigration requirement to obtain work visa in the US.

"The decision on this issue made and announced by the CGFNS Board of Trustees on February 14 was unanimous. That decision is final, and will not be reconsidered," it said

"We hope that is the message the delegation will take back to the Philippines -- that the time for challenges and delegations is past," it added following Puentevella's meeting with its officials in the United States on Monday Only those who wish to work in the United States may take the repeat examination for Tests 3 and 5 of the June 2006 nursing licensure exams to be conducted by the Professional Regulation Commission, Ermita said,

"If they have no plans to go to the United States, they have passed the exams. The Supreme Court said there is no need for retake," he said at a regular press briefing this afternoon in Malacañang,

Ermita said that the government, through the Department of Labor and Employment, has been contesting the decision of the US-based Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools for a retake of Tests 3 and 5 prior to the grant of a Visa Screen Certificate needed to work in the US.

Ermita said the CGFNS has agreed that the DOLE and the PRC will conduct and validate the retake of the examinations which was tainted by a leakage scandal. "And they (CGFNS) agreed that to validate those going to the States, it is the DOLE who will tell them yes, PRC has conducted a validation examination for Tests 3 and 5," he explained.*

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