‘PRC still independent as far as CA is concerned’ -- sources

First posted 12:51pm (Mla time)
Oct 27, 2006
By Tetch Torres
INQ7.net

NOTWITHSTANDING an executive order issued by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo placing the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) under the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE), the Court of Appeals (CA) still sees the commission as an independent body.

This is because, according to two court sources privy to the deliberations on the leak-tainted June nursing licensure examinations, the PRC’s independence is mandated by Republic Act 9173 or the Philippine Nursing Act of 2002, which a mere executive order cannot amend, much more supersede.

On October 13, the appeals court ruled for the selective retake by 1,687 examinees of those portions of the licensure exam tainted by leaked questions, thus paving the way for other board passers to take their oaths as new nurses.

A conciliatory meeting was subsequently held Thursday between stakeholders in the nursing board controversy during which the appellate court gave the go-ahead for the oath-taking of more than 15,000 board passers.

During the meeting, however, the DoLE maintained that the oaths should not be administered until the appeals court has ruled on the appeal filed by the University of Sto. Tomas’ Rene Tadle.

But the court said there was no longer any legal impediment to the oath-taking despite the conflicting positions of the DoLE and PRC.

"Under Republic Act 9173 or the Philippine Nursing Act of 2002, [the] PRC is an independent body and all its decision[s are] final. I don't think a mere executive order can amend a republic act," one of the court sources said.

The other source explained that “it is basic in law” that the executive branch only implements the law while Congress has the exclusive authority to make or amend laws.

"If [Arroyo] wants [the] PRC to be placed under the DoLE, it’s Congress who should make a move by amending the Nursing Act," the source said.

Former senator Rene Saguisag, counsel for a group of nursing board passers who have been demanding they be allowed to take their oaths on the grounds that they were not involved in the cheating, agrees with this position and has filed a supplemental petition to his earlier call to have Labor Secretary Arturo Brion cited in contempt.

Aside from the appellate court’s decision being an enforceable ruling, Saguisag stressed that "an executive order cannot amend a statute. It's as simple as that."

Brion, said Saguisag, "should have followed the rule of law. He has to comply with the Court of Appeals order" allowing the oath-taking because he has “no personality” to block it.

"He [Brion] is nothing before the Court of Appeals. The Court of Appeals does not take orders from its former members," Saguisag said, referring to the fact that the Labor Secretary was once an appellate court justice.

Only the Supreme Court, he added, can prevent the oath-taking.