TRO issued vs oath-taking of nursing exam passers

The Court of Appeals Third Division on Friday issued a 60-day temporary restraining order (TRO) against the oath-taking of students who got passing marks in this year's controversial nursing board exams. In a two-page decision, the appellate court directed the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) and the Board of Nursing "to cease and desist from ... proceeding with the oath-taking allegedly scheduled on Aug. 22, 2006." Associate Justices Vicente Veloso, Conrado Vasquez Jr and Rebecca de Guia-Salvador sided with the petition filed by complainants from the University of Sto. Tomas, the League of Concerned Nurses and the Binuklod na Samahan ng mga Nurses. Some board passers in Cebu and Iloilo were already sworn in as new nurses before local PRC officials. The justices gave the PRC and the nursing board 10 days to file their comment on the order. They specified, however, that they were not giving them time to file a motion to dismiss. The Senate civil service committee recently said that it has gathered "strong indications" that there was a "leakage of test questions." The restraining order is intended, the justices said, to "preserve the rights of petitioners pending disposition of the subject petition and so as not to render any judgment hereon moot and academic, the temporary restraining order prayed for is granted." "Likewise, finding merit, in the allegations that petitioners are instituting this action as taxpayers for the public good and since they have no financial interest in its results, they, consequently, are hereby freed from the obligation of positing an injunctive bond," the CA said. A total of 17,821 out of 42,006 examinees passed the Nurse Licensure Examination given by the Board of Nursing on June 11 and 12, 2006. The exam, given in the cities of Manila, Baguio, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, Davao, Iloilo, Legazpi, Lucena, Tacloban, Tuguegarao and Zamboanga, covered five subjects, each with 100 questions. The appellate court's decision came a day after George Cordero, president of the Philippine Nurses Association (PNA), quit his post over allegations that he engineered the leakage.-GMANews.TV