Wednesday, May 07, 2008 PRC to applicants: Get rid of fixers By Rimaliza Opiña
WHEN filing application for board examinations at the Philippine Regulatory Commission (PRC), never allow anyone to process your application in exchange for a fee, an official of PRC warned.
The warning was issued after receiving complaints from both parents and reviewees who recently failed to take the midwifery and nursing licensure examinations because their applications were coursed through an "agent."
PRC Regional Director Evangeline Vergara said no one was authorized to process applications because personal appearance of the applicant is required.
"No representatives much less review centers are allowed to process applications," Vergara stressed, adding that since December last year the PRC started doing the rounds in several colleges and universities in Northern Luzon to process applications.
Verification and processing of applications are done by PRC employees inside the campus only every Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, Vergara said.
She said on-campus processing was done in response to the clamor of clients who were forced to line up at the PRC as early as 3 a.m. to ensure their applications are processed days before the actual examinations.
Control numbers are also issued to applicants to ensure that a given day, a number of clients can be catered to. In one day, the PRC processes an average of 700 applications. Vergara said: "Days before their exams all applications have normally been processed. There is no reason to get the services of a fixer."
"We have not been remiss in our duties, advisories were issued in the media and the schools that processing should be done personally," Vergara said adding the matter has been referred to their central office for further investigation.
Application forms also contain serial numbers. This will show that the applications have been verified by the PRC. Without a serial number, forms may have been issued under questionable circumstances, she said.
Vergara advised the reviewees of Northcap to tell them who from the PRC issued the forms but no one dared to talk.
Processing of applications for midwifery is P600 and P900 for nursing, not P800 and P1,000 as what the complainants claimed were collected from them.
Last week, a group of midwifery graduates who came all the way from Pangasinan, Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte threatened to sue the Northcap review center for failing to process their applicants, resulting in their failure to take the licensure exams on April 29 and 30.
Ninety-five of the 150 applicants for midwifery and 1,000 nursing reviewees of Northcap are affected, 30 of them sought the assistance of Councilor Richard Cariño to represent them in case they pursue the filing of a complaint versus the review center.
The reviewees are demanding a full refund of payments made to the review center.
Sun.Star tried to get the comment of Northcap owner Ludivina Ramos but her staff said she and other ranking officials of the review center are out-of-town and are set to come back within the week.
The review center likewise declined to give Ramos' contact numbers unless they are given instructions to do so.
