Palace defers decision on nursing exam retake

Malacanang is giving a five-man panel led by an ally in Congress until March 4 to exhaust all means to appeal the decision of the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS)denying VisaScreen Certificates to Filipino nursing graduates who passed the June 2006 licensure exams. This was despite a statement from CGFNS on Saturday that the decision was final and that there was no provision for an appeal or reconsideration of the CGFNS Board of Trustees simply because there was no higher body to take up the appeal. In a roundtable discussion Tuesday, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo refused to make a categorical statement on the recommendation of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) for a retake of the leakage-tainted licensure exam to accommodate a congressman’s request for more time for a last-ditch appeal. Interviewed on the phone, Bacolod City Rep. Monico Puentevella told GMANews.TV that he was supposed to leave for the United States on March 3 with Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) chair Leonor Rosero, former Board of Nursing chair Eufemia Octaviano, Remigia Nathanielz of Fatima University and Alliance of New Nurses president Renato Aquino for a March 5 meeting with officials of CGFNS in Philadelphia. “The US Embassy Consul General Richard Dale Haynes advised us that this is the best approach, that we give CGFNS a personal account of what has happened," Puentevella said. However, the group’s departure has been postponed indefinitely following a conversation on Saturday between Rosero and CGFNS chief executive officer Barbara Nichols. “We were told to send all our position papers, the computation and other documents that the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals used in deciding in our favor against a retake of all the 17,000 passers. They said they will study the documents and all the new data that we will send," Puentevella said. “If they are convinced, then they will give us the date and time of our appointment. So, we’re waiting for it until next week," Puentevella said. “We don’t want to give up yet. We will see if we can be given a chance to explain to them the circumstances because many things have happened between September when they were here and now," the congressman explained. In its website, CGFNS said on Saturday that a US trip by the group from the Philippines would no longer serve a purpose considering that the decision is final. The CGFNS said Dr. Nichols initiated the telephone conversation with Rosero “so that she might provide Dr. Rosero with additional information regarding CGFNS's recent decision to deny VisaScreen® certification to nurses licensed following the June 2006 licensure examination." A VisaScreen Certificate is required before any healthcare worker educated outside the U.S. can be issued an occupational visa to work in the United States. President Arroyo begged from making any statement about a retake of Tests 3 and 5 of the June 2006 exam so she would not be criticized for “sabotaging" the last-ditch efforts to appeal the CGFNS decision. Even then, presidential chief of staff Joey Salceda said Malacanang is prepared to provide assistance in the event the decision for a retake becomes final. “Puentevella talked to her if it was possible to withhold any pronouncement to give them moral backing when they go to the US. Actually, (the President) is prepared to announce that we will pay for the retake," Salceda told reporters in the Palace. “We can easily take P17 million out of the contingency fund," he said. “PNA (Philippine Nursing Association) pleaded, Octaviano pleaded, Puentevella pleaded to give them one last try. Even Kris (Aquino) gave James Yap another chance…" Salceda said. “I think we are morally supporting the last ditch efforts, there is nothing to lose by doing that," he added. “It will not take that long. We will immediately know whether the last ditch effort is really futile." In the event a retake decision becomes final, Salceda assured that the government “will certainly pay" for the costs of conducting the test. “I have cleared it with the President." He said the issue of shouldering the cost of the review of the retake has not been decided. “If they shout louder I think we will. All we need is for them to shout louder," he quipped. Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. said the government will choose State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) as venues for the nursing exam retake. Labor Sectretary Arturo Brion said on Monday that he has started talking with the deans of “Centers of Excellence" under the Commission on Higher Education (ChED) for the conduct of reviews for the exam retake. Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Sergio Apostol said President Arroyo need not issue an executive order, as proposed by Brion, for the re-take and that the DOLE should just fix the date for the exam retake in coordination with the PRC. Andaya said giving the panel led by Puentevella some time to appeal the CGFNS decision was “not prolonging the agony, (but) more of exhausting all options." In the CGFNS website, it said Dr. Nichols assured Rosero that CGFNS was fully aware of and concerned about the hardship that its decision might cause to the June 2006 passers.’ “Dr. Nichols noted, however, that the decision is final, and no useful purpose would be served by Dr. Rosero coming to the United States to make an ‘appeal’ of that decision," the website statement said, citing the following reasons: • “CGFNS is not a Court or a Government agency. It is a private, nonprofit corporation. The Board of Trustees, the highest authority of that corporation, has made this decision. There is no process or provision for an appeal or reconsideration of a Board decision. There is no higher authority than the Board of Trustees. • The decision of the CGFNS Board of Trustees is required by U.S. immigration law in circumstances such as this. In this case, because passers of the June 2006 Philippine nursing licensure exam were found to have a license that was not comparable to a U.S. nursing license, the Board was required to determine that a VisaScreen Certificate may not be issued to such individuals. • The decision of the Board of Trustees on this issue was unanimous. There was not a single No vote. • As evidence of its compassion and concern about the consequences of its decision, CGFNS provided an opportunity for the June passers to "cure" their present ineligibility by re-taking the equivalent of Tests 3 and 5. CGFNS will therefore gladly accept the passing test scores of any nurse who had the courage to re-take the licensure exam--in whole or in part--in December 2006. And it has urged the Philippine Government to allow the June 2006 passers to re-take Tests 3 and 5 during 2007. • This decision of the CGFNS Board is final; the matter is settled." - GMANews.TV