Wednesday, October 18, 2006 Parents of nursing passers may file damage suit
NURSING board passers in Cebu and their parents have suffered too much that some are considering filing damage suits against those who insist on withholding their licenses.
Tanan (Tapok-tapok sa Nagkahiusang Nurses Batok sa Retake) is referring to Rene Luis Tadle, president of the University of Sto. Tomas (UST) College of Nursing; Earl Francis Sumile, president of the League of Concerned Nurses; and Michael Angelo Brant, president of Binuklod na Samahan ng mga Student Nurses.
The nursing students and their parents are against the three petitioners’ move to ask the Court of Appeals (CA) to reconsider its decision for a selective retake of the leakage-tainted licensure exams given last June.
Tanan’s legal counsel Edgardo Labella revealed that a number of parents have already approached him about filing a damage suit, particularly against Tadle.
“The parents now want to go on the offensive,” said Labella, also a Cebu City councilor.
“The filing of the petition for prohibition was done in bad faith, it was malicious and it was intended to prejudice the legitimate passers, particularly the honest ones,” he said.
However, he could only advice the parents to “hold their punches” and wait for further development.
Bautista said the filing fee may be too much for most parents. He would rather wait for the conciliation talks proposed by Labor Secretary Arturo Brion.
About 1,723 nursing graduates in Central Visayas passed the exams. But the numbers may change with the order of the appellate court for a retake of tests 3 and 5, for those whose names were added to the list of successful examinees after a recomputation of grades.
The recomputation was done after the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) found out that the two tests were leaked to some examinees who underwent review classes in Manila and Baguio City.
Delay
Meanwhile, CA Associate Justice Regalado Maambong said that the case is very simple as it is a matter of “common sense.”
“It is (only) a question of fact. Was there cheating in this area? Those who were involved in cheating should be the only ones to retake the tests,” said Maambong in a radio dyLA interview.
He did agree with the directive of Brion, who ordered the PRC to desist from conducting oath-taking and issuing licenses.
In its 33-page decision released last Friday, the appellate court ordered the PRC to include 1,186 examinees that were removed from the list of board passers after the recomputation of grades, following the nullification of tests 3 and 5 of the June exam.
The court said that board passers in the original PRC list can take their oaths and get their nursing licenses.
It added, however, that the licenses can be revoked if investigators prove that a nursing board passer benefited from the leakage that was allegedly done in three review centers—R.A. Gapuz, Inress and Pentagon. (JGA)
