PRC chair accuses 2 officials of meddling in nursing exam issue

Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) chair Leonor Tripon Rosero on Tuesday pointed to Labor Secretary Arturo Brion and Commission on Filipinos Overseas chair Dante Ang as among those meddling in the nursing board examinations leakage issue. Rosero appeared before the Senate finance committee's hearing on the PRC’s proposed 2007 budget and was asked to explain the government's varying stand on the issue. The PRC chair was initially reluctant to name names, merely saying that she was referring to those responsible for putting the commission under the supervision of the Department of Labor and Employment, a move President Gloria Macapagal ordered after the controversy broke out, along with groups demanding a retake. "So you consider the Secretary of Labor as intruding into your function?," Drilon asked Rosero. The PRC chair replied: "Yes, your honor. And also Dante Ang is saying not so good things about the PRC". The PRC under Rosero has taken a strident "no retake" position on the issue, which she reiterated during the hearing. "Your honor, up to this time our stand is no retake. It is those other people who are intruding and doing a demolition job against the PRC (who are calling for a retake)," Brion told Senator Franklin Drilon, chair of the finance committee. The examinations given last June were marred by controversy after several examinees came out to reveal that questions in two of five tests were leaked by some review centers. Some 17,000 passed out of more than 40,000 who took the examinations. Rosero pointed to Ang as the one who was spreading the view that since the examinations were tainted, the Filipino nurses – particularly who took and passed the exams – would not find lucrative employment abroad. Ang is head of the Task Force on the US National Council Licensure Examinations (NCLEX), which is spearheading the government's bid to have the US examination for nurses be administered in the Philippines. The task force headed by Ang, also a former long-time publicist of Mrs Arroyo, investigated the leakage. "There are 21 states in the US accepting nurses without the PRC license and they can take the NCLEX. For the CGFNS (Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools), there are about 20 states not requiring the CGFNS exams," Rosero said. "And here in the Philippines, there are many hospitals and associations accepting these recent passers of the examination. So it's not true what he (Ang) is talking about," she added. Rosero also said the PRC has been put into a bad light because of the "media, TV and all other nursing leaders – those who do not understand how we computed this June 2006 examination." She also noted that once the temporary restraining order of the Court of Appeals – preventing the board passers from taking their oath – the PRC would allow the oath-taking of the those who passed the examinations.