Only 3,261 of 4,776 retake civil engineering board exams

Despite efforts by engineering graduates to stop it, the re-take for the civil engineering board examination pushed through Saturday, the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) said. According to PRC chair Leonor Rosero-Tripon, out of the 4,776 examiners about 3,261 took the re-take exam for the two subjects - hydraulics and geotechnical engineering and structural engineering and construction while some 1,515 opted not to take the licensure test. The re-take was conducted Saturday and held in eight testing areas including Manila after the Court of Appeals denied the petition for the issuance of Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) filed by a group of civil engineering graduates opposing the re-take. Examinees opposed to the re-take held vigils at the PRC Central Office and in some test centers on the eve of the examination day and during the examination day, some had even went to the schools sites and venues to distribute manifestos and encourage other examinees to skip the examination. Results of the re-take will be released by the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE). The PRC nullified the results of the civil engineering board exam in November 2007 for the subject hydraulics and geotechnical engineering after finding the unusually high grades of the examinees. In the results, it showed that 461 out of the 4,728 perfected the exams while 627 got higher than 90 percent scores. - GMANews.TV