Friday, October 20, 2006 152 Cebu grads in retakers list By Jujemay G. Awit Sun.Star Staff Reporter
THE list of possible retakers of the 2006 nursing licensure exam includes 152 successful examinees from Cebu City.
Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) 7 Acting Director Dan Malayang said he received the list past 2 p.m. last Wednesday.
Since then, Cebu-based nursing graduates who took the licensure exam last June trooped to the PRC office to check if their names are on the list.
Sun.Star Cebu chanced upon some nurses who wanted to check the list yesterday afternoon.
The nurses have to present an identification card before Mala-yang allows them to see the list.
Malayang also took up with them the implication of the list.
“The key words are final and executory,” he told the nursing graduates, explaining that reconsideration is being sought on the Court of Appeals (CA) decision for a “selective retake.”
This means that the list containing the names of 152 nursing graduates who took the board in Cebu City is yet to be finalized pending the court decision.
Last Friday, the CA ordered that only 1,687 of the 17,821 board passers nationwide should retake the exams.
The 1,687 are nursing students who got a rating of 73 or 74 but whose grades were stretched to 75 after a recomputation by virtue of a PRC Resolution 31, after it was found out that part of the exam was leaked to some examinees.
However, the CA nullified the resolution, which resulted in the order for a “selective retake.”
“Things can still happen,” Malayang told Sun.Star Cebu.
One possibility is a conciliation between the parties who want a complete retake of the examination and those who want to adopt the CA decision.
If not, the CA case can still reach the Supreme Court.
Malayang, who is also a lawyer, also told the nurses a three-year waiting period may be in the offing, especially if the case reaches the High Court.
He said that the appellate court has a year to resolve a case while the High Tribunal has two years.
The nursing graduates who met him yesterday voiced their disapproval to this.
But Malayang told them that if it is any indication that the case is being resolved expeditiously, it only took the CA about three months to resolve the petition for prohibition filed by groups that want to prevent the PRC from administering the oath to board passers.
One nursing student asked Malayang what happens if the order becomes final and executory and an examinee who was on the list fails the retake.
Malayang could only say that there is nothing else that the commission can do. The examinee cannot be given a license in that case.
Christine Mae Tiu, 20, was still shaking even after taking a look at the list and confirming that her name was not on it.
“I was relieved but I’m still really nervous,” she said.
“But it’s still sad that some of us were given false hopes,” Tiu added.
A total of 1,723 nursing graduates took the board exam in Cebu City last June 11 and 12.
The appellate court ordered a retake of tests 3 and 5 for those whose names were added to list of successful examinees after a recomputation of grades.
The recomputation was done after the PRC found out that the two tests were leaked to some examinees who underwent review classes in Manila and Baguio City.
Of the list of retakers, Manila had the bulk of possible retakers with 814, followed by Baguio with 212, then Cebu City.
Davao City has 131 possible retakers, while Iloilo has 99.
Others include: Cagayan de Oro-93, Legazpi-66, Zamboanga City-60, Lucena City-26, Tugeuegarao-22 and Tacloban City-12.
