Elated by the end of their ordeal, teary-eyed passers of the leakage-marred June 2006 nursing exams on Friday morning took their oath as full-fledged nurses at the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) headquarters in Manila. The first batch of 200 nurses were sworn in at about 8:30 a.m. at the PRC auditorium accompanied by their similarly jubilant parents and family members. As of noon, QTV-11 television reported that some 3,000 exam passers already took their oath. PRC security opened the office gates at 7:15 a.m. and allowed the nursing graduates to enter on a first-come-first-served basis. Some graduates camped out of the PRC office as early as 3 a.m., the QTV report said. The PRC auditorium can accommodate only 200 nurses at a time. As of posting time, the line of board passers outside the PRC office has stretched all the way up to España Avenue, about hundred meters away. Radio station dzBB said the oath-taking sessions would most likely last until the afternoon. Many of the graduates, who came from remote provinces such as Bataan, planned to hear mass at the nearby Quiapo Church after their oath-taking to "give thanks" that they can now find work. "We (have) already applied for jobs. All we had to get were our licenses and our oaths," a female nurse from Bataan said in Filipino during an interview with dzBB radio.
She said she was "very happy" that she could finally take her oath as she was among the 17,323 examinees who got passing marks on the initial test results but could not be sworn in due to the leakage mess. The interviewee said she had already applied for a job in the United States and that her oath-taking will hopefully pave the way for her to start working overseas. Nonetheless, she said she believed those behind the leakagemust be prosecuted for all the trouble they had caused this year's batch of nurses. "They (Cheaters) should answer for what they did," she said. Facilitators of the United States' National Council Licensure Examinations (NCLEX) met with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo last Wednesday and conveyed that they will keenly observe developments on the leakage controversy before allowing the conduct of the American test in the Philippines. Dante Ang, chair of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas, had been pushing to have the NCLEX in the Philippines, saying the move would spare some 9,000 Filipino nurses the cost of taking the test in other countries. A day after the NCLEX managers' visit, the Court of Appeals declared that there was no legal impediment for the oath-taking of the 17,323 examinees who took the tests in June 2006. This number of nursing graduates makes up the 41.24 percent of examinees who passed based on the initial test results. Appeals court Associate Justice Vicente Veloso on Thursday said the 60-day temporary restraining order (TRO) against the oath-taking of the examinees had already expired. The atmosphere was different at the PRC office on October 16, when the PRC had to turn away nurses who wanted to take their oath after Malacañang ordered it suspended. At the time, many of the nurses were either shaken or outraged that they have had to wait all day only to be told in the afternoon that there would be no oath-taking rites. "This is so unfair. What do I do now? I came all the way from Ilocos Sur to take my oath," dzRH radio then quoted nurse Paul delos Santos as saying. Delos Santos was among the nurses who had milled inside the auditorium to take their oath when Malacanang's suspension order came.
-GMANews.TV 
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