Civil engineering exam retake held despite protest

The Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) yesterday announced that they have “successfully” conducted the retake examination for two subjects in the civil engineering licensure test despite the protests of some examinees.

The PRC had earlier nullified the test results in the subjects Hydraulics and Geodetical Engineering after they caught two examinees cheating in the Nov. 17 and 18,  2007 civil engineering licensure test.

PRC chairperson Leonor Rosero-Tripon said that 3,261 examinees opted to re-take the exam while 1,515 examinees decided to forgo the test conducted yesterday in testing centers in Manila, Baguio, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, Davao, Ilo-ilo, Legaspi and Tacloban.

The PRC had nullified the test results in the subjects Hydraulics and Geodetical Engineering and Structural Engineering and Construction after they caught two students in possession of mobile phones that contained 30 answers – 21 of which were correct – to questions in Structural Engineering and Construction subjects.

The commission also noticed statistical improbability in the test results in the subjects Hydraulics and Geodetical Engineering wherein 461 out of the 4,782 examinees reportedly got a perfect score.

Many students have questioned PRC’s order to nullify the test results, saying that they should not be made to suffer from the wrongdoings of the two examinees.

Gregory Gabelo, one of the 13 engineering graduates who filed a petition against the retake order, said that many of his fellow examinees chose to wait for the final outcome of their petition that is now in the Court of Appeals than take the exam once again.

Gabelo said he and his fellow members at the Civil Engineering Graduates Against Retake Students’ Union (CE AGRESSION) will wait for the CA ruling on the motion for reconsideration they filed after the appellate court denied their petition for a temporary restraining order.

“That ruling only denied the petition for a TRO. We have already filed a motion for reconsideration. And the Court of Appeals has yet to decide on the main petition for injunction,” Gabelo told the STAR yesterday.

While they are optimistic about the outcome of the petition at the CA, Gabelo said they would have to count on the Supreme Court as their  last resort.

The defiant examinees also held vigils at the PRC Central Office in Manila and in some testing centers last Saturday and yesterday morning to encourage their colleagues to boycott the test. – Sheila Crisostomo, Rainier Ronda