PRC to review ruling nullifying engineering exam results

The Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) is taking a second look at its decision nullifying the results of the allegedly anomalous engineering licensure examination.

PRC chairman Leonor Rosero said she will ask the Commission’s Engineering Board to study the appeal of the examinees for reconsideration of an order revoking the results of the licensure tests.

“I am submitting the appeal to the board and we will study it,” Rosero said.

Examinees of the November engineering licensure tests staged a protest in front of the PRC office yesterday to dramatize their objection to the order for a retake of the licensure examination on Jan. 12.

Last week, the PRC ordered the 4,782 engineering graduates who took the licensure examination last Nov. 17 and 18 to retake the tests after discovering irregularities in two subjects.

The PRC said the unusually high grades obtained by the examinees in the two subjects – Hydraulics and Geotechnical Engineering, Structural Engineering and Construction – were “statistically improbable.”

The PRC also reported two examinees were caught with cell phones during the examinations. Further inquiry revealed their cell phones contained answers to about 30 possible test questions.

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is currently undertaking the investigation to trace the origin of the anomaly.

The examinees claimed the PRC’s decision revoking the results of the examination was abrupt and without legal basis.

“We stand for no retake in these two subjects unless PRC shall present substantial basis,” said examinee Neil Erich.

Erich said most of them wanted a legal explanation and evidence to support a retake to prove that the grades obtained by many examinees were statistically improbable.   – Mayen Jaymalin