Nursing groups form task force to appeal visa hold

By Margaux Ortiz
Inquirer
Last updated 10:33pm (Mla time) 02/19/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- Various nursing associations and stakeholders formed on Monday a task force that would appeal the recent decision of the US Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS) to refuse the issuance of VisaScreen Certificates to June 2006 board passers.

Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) chair Leonor Rosero said the members of the task force would leave for Philadelphia, where the CGFNS is based, on February 26.

"We have agreed to appeal to the CGFNS in behalf of the Filipino nurses who passed the June licensure examinations," Rosero said in a press conference at the Philippine Nursing Association (PNA) office in Manila.

Rosero added that she would head the delegation, which the PRC chief said was independent of the group directed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo last week to appeal for reconsideration of the CGFNS decision.

Dr. Remigia Nathanielz, president of the Association of Deans of Philippine Colleges of Nursing, and the PNA president, Dr. Leah Primitiva Samaco-Paquiz would form part of the task force.

"We would show the CGFNS officials how the examination results were computed, together with the decision of the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court on the issue," Rosero said.

The US CGFNS announced on its website last Wednesday that the June 2006 passers would not be eligible for VisaScreen Certificates unless they would take and pass the equivalent of Tests 3 and 5 "on a future licensing examination administered by Philippine regulatory authorities" and obtained a passing score.

The CGFNS urged Philippine authorities to "provide an opportunity for a retake" for the passers "without surrender of licensure" for them to qualify for the VisaScreen Certificate.

The US-based group made their announcement a day after the high tribunal rejected with finality, on a technicality, the plea of groups to order a retake of the tainted portions of the exam.

Nursing professors led by those from the University of Sto. Tomas questioned before the high court the Court of Appeals decision to order only a selective retake of the examination, paving the way for the oath-taking of the passers.

The appellate court had ruled that those affected by the PRC's recomputation of grades, which the commission nullified, should retake Test 3 (medical-surgical nursing) and Test 5 (psychiatric nursing).

Rosero said 17,000 Filipino nurses who passed the board examinations could benefit from their move to appeal directly to the CGFNS at the end of the month.

"We will likewise ask Secretary Dante Ang to come with us," Rosero said. Ang, chairman of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO), had been staunchly for the retake of the June 2006 licensure examinations.

Rey Salud, who passed the June licensure examinations, said they attended Monday's meeting to ask the PNA to help them appeal the CGFNS decision.

"We are the ones suffering here. It would be unfair for the board passers to take the examinations again," Salud said.

The Alliance of New Nurses (ANN), on the other hand, stressed that the government should exhaust all means to appeal for the June 2006 board passers.

"The government and the nursing industry owe that to us," ANN spokesperson Renato Aquino said in a text message to the Philippine Daily Inquirer.