Engineering graduates ask court to stop retake of board exam

A group of graduates who took the Civil Engineering Licensure Examination last November asked the Court of Appeals (CA) on Monday to stop the Professional Regulations Commission (PRC) from holding the scheduled retake on January 12. The Civil Engineering Against Retake Students' Union (CE Agression) filed before the appellate court a 30-page petition asking for a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the PRC, which scheduled a retake after discovering incidents of alleged rigging in the November 17 and 18 licensure exam. "The order of the PRC to have a retake of the exam has no factual and legal basis. And this is to consider that we have a pending petition with the PRC to reconsider (its retake order)," the group's lawyer Jobert Pahilga told GMANews.TV in a phone interview. The petitioners from the group of examinees included Dianne Casimiro, Neil Galicia, Amadis Bautista, Jennyl Estil, Allan de Castro, Rachel Ann Apuan, James Zapata, Carlos Sanvictores, Mark Abundo, Gregory Gabelo, Daniel del Villar, Dean Vergara, and Eloyd Selda. CE Agression was supposed to ask the court for a TRO last January 3. But after it was informed that the PRC would release its resolution on the group's petition before Saturday last week, the group decided to defer the filing of the case. However, with the week ending without the PRC’s resolution, the group finally filed the petition for TRO. "We checked with the PRC and they already have room assignments for the retake. So, it was understood that our petition was denied," Pahilga said. He said the group would also file on Tuesday a motion urging the CA to hold an oral argument and hearing either on Wednesday or Thursday. PRC orders retake Last November, the PRC voided the test results and ordered a retake of some parts of the examination, after the commission found that the results of the Hydraulic and Geotechnical Engineering parts of the exam, were "glaringly high and statistically improbable." Based on the PRC's initial investigation, mean scores in the two parts of the examination were higher than those usually obtained in previous examinations. According to the PRC, the results of the two-day licensure exam, which was taken by 4,782 hopefuls, revealed that 461 examinees garnered "unusually" high grades in both parts. Another 627 examinees secured scores higher than 90 percent. "These two numbers add up to 1,088. This is saying that 1,088 of the 4,782 examinees, or 22% scored higher than 90% in the test. This result is statistically improbable," the PRC findings said. "It seems justified to void the examination results in the subject Hydraulic and Geotechnical Engineering and in Structural Engineering and Construction and get everybody to retake the two subjects, if not all the three subjects," PRC Chairman Leonor Rosero said in the findings. The third subject Rosero was pertaining to was Mathematics, where examinees also allegedly obtained high scores. The said subject, however, will not be included in the January 12 retake. In addition to these "improbabilities," the PRC said two examinees at a testing center in Cagayan de Oro were caught carrying cell phone units, which were strictly prohibited inside the examination room. The commission also found out that one of the phones contained answers to 30 items in the Structural Engineering and Construction part of the exam. Twenty one of the answers allegedly stored in the mobile phone unit turned out to be correct. The scheduled retake will take place in all testing centers in eight cities nationwide where the same examination was held last November 17 and 18. Pahilga said the PRC issued a warning that should examinees fail to show up in the retake, “they will be considered absent and will be deemed to have failed the licensure exam." Questions were 'very easy' For its part, CE Agression said that the grades were high in the Hydraulics and Geotechnical Engineering parts of the exam because the questions were "basic, fundamental and elementary concepts which future civil engineers should and must know." In a petition sent to the PRC, the group asked, "Why will the examinees's high grades be deemed unusual and statistically improbable when the questions were very easy?" As for the examinees caught carrying cell phone units, the group said it "is unjust a penalty for all the examinees to the supposed misdeed committed by only two examinees." The group said that instead of making all 4,000 of the examiners pay the price, the PRC should only punish the cheaters. Report of alleged cheating plan The PRC officials also received a received a report from Davao on November 16 showing that there were examinees who had devised a way to carry out cheating on the day of the examination. "On the night prior to the first day of examination, (PRC officials) learned of a planned modus operandi of high-tech cheating using earphones, transmitters, and mobile phones," the report said. The report prompted the PRC officials in respective testing centers to observe strict precautionary measures to prevent the alleged planned cheating from being carried out. Proctors at the testing centers asked the examinees to turn off and surrender their cell phones before taking the exam. Examinees were also barred from using portable toilets at the testing centers, and were only allowed to go to regular restrooms. Also, the shoes and pockets, and even the ears of the examinees had to be inspected for any transmitter or other communication gadgets that could be used for cheating. Actions to reject retake Gregory Gabelo, CE Agression media affairs head, said that examinees held a prayer rally in Cebu province to denounce the PRC's retake order. CE Agression has held several demonstrations and protest rallies since November, appealing to the PRC to release the names of those who passed the examination as well as to revoke its retake order. The group had already carried out "petition rites" last December where some 200 members trooped to the St. Jude Archdiocesan Shrine in San Miguel, Manila to hear mass before marching near Malacañang. Agression president Neil Galicia earlier told GMANews.TV, "Ang pinaglalaban namin ay fail or pass. We deserve (to know) the results of the exams. We are not afraid of the retake. Bigyan lang nila ng magandang dahilan ‘yong mga estudyante" (We are fighting for a fail or pass result. We deserve to know the results of the exam. We are not afraid of the retake. We just want them to give students a valid reason for the retake). The group's complaint has already reached both the Senate and the House. A congressman filed a resolution for an investigation into the issue. Double standard The group slammed PRC for allegedly having a "double standard." It compared the incident to the 2006 controversy over the Nursing Licensure Examination, wherein the PRC formed an independent fact-finding group that looked into the issue before ordering a retake. In the case of the aspiring engineers, the group said they were denied due process when the PRC nullified the results and ordered the retake without prior consultations with the examinees. The controversial Civil Board Examination was conducted in eight testing centers in Metro Manila and the provinces of Baguio, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, Davao, Iloilo, Legazpi and Tacloban. The last Civil Engineering Licensure Examination in May 2007 saw a 33.19 passing rate, with 914 of 2,754 aspiring engineering graduates passing the test. The alleged cheating was one of several rigging controversies that hounded the PRC. Of these, the most controversial was the 2006 Nursing Licensure Exam, which threatened the reputation of the batch of examinees. - GMANews.TV