Cebu PRC obeys Palace order to suspend nurse's oath-taking
By Minerva BC Newman
Cebu City (17 October) -- The Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) in the region has suspended the oath-taking of nurses here in Cebu City in compliance to the President's order to suspend administering the oath to new nurses after the Court of Appeals ruled a "selective retake" on the June licensure exams.
Atty. Dan Malayang, PRC-7 acting regional director, in a media interview today said, his office is still waiting for the order from its national PRC as to the definite schedule of the oath-taking. Malayang added, his office was flooded with board passers and their parents and relatives hoping that they can take their oath today.
Malayang further said, the PRC-7 has not yet received the list of board passers from their main office. He told the board passers to continuously monitor the update. The last instructions that he received from DOLE Secretary Brion are to wait and suspend all oath-takings and releases of licenses.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita earlier said, the court decision would become final and executory only 15 days after it has been received by the PRC. Ermita added that Labor secretary Arturo Brion would "try to exert effort at conciliation" with stakeholders who might appeal the court decision.
"While the Court of Appeals decision was handed down October 13, it has not been served yet to PRC, and even if it has been served it would take another 15 days to become final and executory, so DOLE thought it prudent to instruct PRC not to administer the oath," Ermita said in a news briefing Monday.
Meantime, majority of the board passers in Cebu had already taken their oath last August before the Court of Appeals handed the temporary restraining order (TRO) and they were thankful that the CA finally came out with the order that there was no wide leakage in the exams.
The Court of Appeals earlier ordered for the retake of 1,687 examinees that were added to the 17,821 board passers after the PRC had computed the grading system based on its investigation and invalidation of tests 3 and 5.
Malayang said, he has yet received a list and he has not also seen whether there are Cebuano nurses that will retake the exams.
As this developed, the members of the nurses group called "Tapok-tapok sa Nagkahiusang Nurses Batok sa Retake (TANAN) gathered to a thanksgiving mass at the Redemptorist church in honor of those that passed the nurses' licensure exam. (PIA-Cebu) [top]
