PRC denies leakage in ECE board exams

CEBU, Philippines – The Professional Regulations Commission denied that there was leakage in the recent ECE board examinations.

PRC-7 director Dan Malayang urged those who make the allegations to execute affidavits and file a formal complaint before them. Malayang said PRC Manila will look into it but the complainants can file their complaint before his office in Cebu.

Malayang said those who make the allegations should prove their claim to be fair. He said it is a crime to leak the board questions. Anybody found guilty of it could be imprisoned for six to 12 years and fined ranging from P50,000 to P100,000.

The complainants, however, are hesitant to file the complaint before the PRC because of apprehensions that the investigation will be whitewashed. They believe that some PRC officials could be in connivance with a local review center where the questioner was allegedly leaked.

They are calling for an independent body to look into it to dispel suspicions of whitewash.

While Malayang assured facilitating the complaint, should there be any, he vehemently denied there was leakage in the examinations. According to Malayang, it is impossible to leak the questions because it was properly secured.

In fact, the printing was done on the night before the day of the examinations. There was also no way that the questions will be leaked because the diskette that contains the questioners was incrypted, meaning it could not be opened without a code.

Malayang said the code was only given to the chairman of the Board of Electronics Engineering who has the custody of the diskette on the night that they are to print the questioners.

During the printing they are guarded by the National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine National Police and were placed on a quarantine room without means of communication until the day of the examinations.

Malayang said that during the examination day they have not noticed anything unusual in the testing centers.

At least 15 ECE graduates in the Visayas and Mindanao earlier claimed that there was leakage in the board exams held in Cebu over the weekend.

The board takers sought the assistance of the media to ask the PRC to conduct an investigation.

According to them, at least 13 questions from the "leaked-questioner" in Math came out during the board exam. The number of leaked-questions comprises 26-percent of the 50-item test for the subject. The questions were allegedly leaked to Excel Review Center. 

Excel Review Center vice president Santos Cuervo denied having benefited from the "leaked-questioner."

Cuervo admitted having provided their reviewees with take-home questioners with corresponding answers but denied those were "leaked-questions." Cuervo said if it was true that some of the review questions they provided came out during the board it was just coincidence.

He explained that it was possible that the examiners who prepared the board exam questions used the same reference that they have. (FREEMAN)