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PRC botches Top 10 list of sanitary engineering exam

By DAVID DIZON

abs-cbnNEWS.com

Fresh from the recent controversy with the leakage-marred nursing licensure examination, the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) is in another bind after releasing the wrong topnotchers’ list for the sanitary engineering licensure exam last month due to a computation error.

As a result, the top 10 list was adjusted with at least six topnotchers removed from the list altogether. Some of the topnotchers have yet to be informed by the PRC that they have been removed from the list.

The PRC, which is responsible for licensing professional individuals according to knowledge base and practice, issued the top 10 list on September 25, one working day after the sanitary engineering licensure exam were conducted. Thirty-two of 92 examinees passed the exam.

Top on the list was Juan Carlos III Peret Sales, a student from the Mapua Institute of Technology. Sales garnered a total score of 78.30 from the five tests that covered the sanitary engineering board exam.

Aside from Sales, three other Mapua graduates topped the exam, including Melandro Dariagan Magbanua who placed 2nd (75.20%), Jim Scott Vitug who placed 3rd (74.45%) and Hershey Mae Legaspi Papa who placed 9th (73.10%).

Other universities that had students in the top 10 were Partido State University of Camarines Sur, Western Mindanao State University, Technological Institute of the Philippines Quezon City, Batangas State University and University of Baguio (See list below).

Topnotchers of the September 2006 Sanitary Engineer Licensure Examination released September 25 (source: PRC website)

1. Juan Carlos III Peret Sales – Mapua Institute of Technology - 78.30%

2. Melandro Dariagan Magbanua – Mapua Institute of Technology – 75.20%

3. Jim Scott Vitug - Mapua Institute of Technology – 74.45%

4. Anthony Clapis Caracas – Partido State University Camarines Sur – 74.05%

Marlou Baclion Magallanes – Western Mindanao State University – 74.05%

5. Erilyn Espanto Sinfuego - Partido State University Camarines Sur - 73.80%

6. Michael Andrew Gardon Bago – Technological Institute of the Philippines Quezon City – 73.75%

7. Chirpy Layson Rosales – Partido State University Camarines Sur – 73.45%

8. Philip Jay-Ar Manalo Dimailig – Batangas State University (formerly Pablo Borbon MIT) – 73.35%

9. Hershey Mae Legaspi Papa - Mapua Institute of Technology – 73.10%

10. Smith Bayangan Dawaton – University of Baguio – 72.70%

***

Days after the results were published in newspapers, several civil engineering students called up PRC to complain that they garnered higher scores than those on the top 10 list.

As it turned out, the PRC ratings division disqualified civil engineers who also took up the sanitary engineering board exam for the Top 10.

In an interview with abs-cbnNEWS.com, Florencio Cunanan, chairman of the Board of Sanitary Engineering, admitted that the PRC ratings division made a mistake in the rankings of the sanitary engineering board Top 10 list.

"Hindi naman namin sinasadya ito eh (We didn’t mean to do it). It was never intentional. Unluckily it [affected] some people. I can assure you that there was no manipulation," he said.

Cunanan said the sanitary engineering board exam consists of five parts: environmental engineering; plumbing and public health engineering, water supply engineering, wastewater engineering and civil engineering.

He said civil engineers can get a double degree by taking up additional units for sanitary engineering and passing the sanitary engineering licensure exam.

However, Section 13 of Republic Act No. 1364 or an An Act to Regulate the Practice of Sanitary Engineering in the Philippines states that "duly registered civil engineers shall be exempted from taking the examination in the civil engineering subject of the sanitary engineer licensure examination."

As a result of the provision, civil engineers who already took up the civil engineering board exam would be exempted from Test 5 of the sanitary engineering board. The civil engineering test is equivalent to 15 percent of the final grade of the examinee.

"This is what happened. The one who is doing the encoding in the computer, as is customarily done, they place a negative (-) on the civil engineering subjects of civil engineers who take the exam," Cunanan said, adding that the examinee’s previous grade in the civil engineering board would be used for the final computation of his grade for the sanitary engineering board.

In the case of the September 2006 exam, however, the PRC ratings division disqualified civil engineers who took up the exam for the Top 10 because they were considered for removal and not exemption.

Exemption, not removal

Cunanan said a board examinee who obtains a failing grade in any of the tests can retake that particular subject as a removal.

"When you only take one subject or two [in the board exam], you are already considered ineligible for the Top 10. They will have to be bypassed because actually they are being considered for removal," he said.

The law, however, stated that a repeater in the board licensure examination who places in the top ranks shall be eligible for listing as topnotcher examinee provided that the examination is complete and not a removal.

Cunanan said none of the civil engineers who took up the September 2006 sanitary engineering board were taking a removal exam.

The board examiner pointed out that there was no error in the final grades of all the board takers. He said the exam papers are corrected by computer with little to no human intervention.

He also revealed that it was the first time that PRC published a Top 10 list for the sanitary board exam. "Initially, there were no releases for any board examination with less than 50 passing," he said, adding that the final scores of all the board passers were just released to schools.

This changed after PRC passed Resolution 2006-331 in April, which ordered that a Top 10 list be released "regardless of the number of examinees provided that the top 10 ranks can be filled up by the successful examinees."

On September 25, the PRC ratings division submitted the list of sanitary engineering board passers, which was later published in major dailies. The list included the names and schools of the Top 10 board passers and their final grades.

"We got the list at 2 a.m. on Monday, September 25. When we got the list, we did not know which ones were sanitary engineers and which ones were civil engineers because that is what we have been doing all along," Cunanan said.

He would later discover the error on the rankings after several board passers called PRC and questioned why they were not included in the Top 10 when they had a higher grade than some of the topnotchers.

To check the claims, Cunanan said he recomputed the grades of one of the civil engineers who took the licensure exam and discovered that the examinee had a higher grade than the board topnotcher.

Rectifying the error

Some of the board examinees who passed the exam told abs-cbnNEWS.com that they immediately knew there was something wrong with the results of the sanitary engineering board.

Ryan Erwin Lopez, 28, said several friends told him to verify his grades after he aced both the master plumber and civil engineering board exams.

"I had my doubts about the [licensure exam] results but I only got to verify my grade on October 11 because I was busy with work," he told abs-cbnNEWS.com.

He said that when he went to PRC on October 11, he was told that he was disqualified from the Top 10 despite getting the highest score of all the examinees.

"I told them to just show me the provision stating that I am not eligible for the Top 10 but the resolutions they showed me all said that I must be included in the list," he said.

Several examinees also called up PRC to complain about the results of the board exam.

PRC, however, had already decided as early as the last week of September that a new Top 10 list should be released.

Cunanan said the topnotchers’ list was one of the topics discussed during a meeting of PRC board members in Tagaytay on September 28-29.

Commissioner Renato Valdecantos immediately ordered the Board of Sanitary Engineering to rectify the error by releasing a resolution, explaining the inclusion of civil engineers on the Top 10 list.

On October 10, the board released Resolution No. 03, which stated: "The average overall score or rating in the pertinent civil engineering subjects of a registered civil engineer who took the licensure examination for sanitary engineer shall be considered in the ranking of the topnotchers in the sanitary engineer licensure examination, including the September 2006 examination."

This provision, however, only restated what is already included in RA 1364 and failed to explain why civil engineers were not considered for the topnotchers' list in the first place.

The resolution also included a new list of board topnotchers, which now included 16 names. Six new names were included on the list, displacing the bottom six of the Top 10.

Sales, who placed number 1 on the former PRC list, was bumped off to number 3. Melandro Dariagan Magbanua, who placed second, dropped to number 7.

Other names on the old list also got lower ranks (See list).

Topnotchers of the September 2006 Sanitary Engineer Licensure Examination (released October 10)

1. Ryan Erwin Cardos Lopez – Technological Institute of the Philippines – 81.31%

2. Emmanuel Odiamar Bravo - Mapua Institute of Technology - 79.99%

3. Juan Carlos III Peret Sales – Mapua Institute of Technology - 78.30%

4. Maricar Lunario Punzalan – National University – 76.45%

5. Fritzie Marie Gentile Fernandez - National University – 75.27%

6. Elias III Lagare Baguio - National University – 75.21%

7. Melandro Dariagan Magbanua – Mapua Institute of Technology – 75.20

8. Jim Scott Vitug - Mapua Institute of Technology – 74.45

9. Anthony Clapis Caracas – Partido State University Camarines Sur – 74.05

Marlou Baclion Magallanes – Western Mindanao State University – 74.05

10. Kirstin Amparo Toda - Mapua Institute of Technology -73.81%

11. Erilyn Espanto Sinfuego - Partido State University Camarines Sur - 73.80

12. Michael Andrew Gardon Bago – Technological Institute of the Philippines Quezon City – 73.75

13. Chirpy Layson Rosales – Partido State University Camarines Sur – 73.45

14. Philip Jay-Ar Manalo Dimailig – Batangas State University (formerly Pablo Borbon MIT) – 73.35

15. Hershey Mae Legaspi Papa - Mapua Institute of Technology – 73.10

16. Smith Bayangan Dawaton – University of Baguio – 72.70

***

The resolution also notes that the list of successful examinees and topnotchers "shall be published in the newspaper and PRC Web site and posted in conspicuous places in the Commission premises."

It would also be disseminated to all schools, colleges, universities and all other concerned institutions and entities.

Taking their lumps

On October 13, Cunanan and fellow board member Corazon de los Reyes-Romero met with nine of the topnotchers and showed them the resolution with the new list.

Jim Vitug, who placed 8th in the revised list, said the board members failed to explain thoroughly how they made a mistake in the rankings.

"They talked about job openings first. They couldn’t explain to us how they could have made a mistake even though the tests are conducted every year," he told abs-cbnNEWS.com.

Sales said the board resolution does not acknowledge that the PRC released the wrong rankings for the sanitary engineering board topnotchers last month.

He said he felt ashamed after hearing that he was no longer the board topnotcher.

"Kahihiyan ang ginawa nila. (What they did was shameful.) We didn’t ask for honors but that’s what they did. Now they couldn’t even explain to us why it happened," he told abs-cbnNEWS.com.

Sales is especially bitter since he now has to face relatives, classmates and even co-workers who once thought that he topped the board. He said Mapua even published an ad in a major daily to announce his achievement.

"The damage to my morale is really big. We want a public apology. We will accept that. We just want to hear them acknowledge their mistake," he said.

Several topnotchers also scored the board for not informing them that they had revised the list.

Michael Andrew Bago, who placed 6th in the old list and now ranks 12th, said he has yet to see an announcement from PRC about the new rankings, nor was he informed about the new list.

"This is the first time I've heard about it," Bago told abs-cbnNEWS.com.

He added, however, that he does not mind losing his spot on the top 10 "as long as I passed the test."

Marlou Magallanes, who placed 4th on the old list and now ranked 9th, said he received a text message from PRC about a topnotchers' meeting on October 13. He said he told PRC that he could not come "but I was never informed what would be discussed in the meeting."

Even Lopez, who is the new board topnotcher, criticized the board examiners for keeping the resolution away from the media.

He said that before the meeting, he tried to convince the board members to make sure that the new resolution would be published in newspapers.

"They wouldn’t commit to publishing the resolution. For me, it’s OK but my school (TIP Manila) would want to know about the honor because it would boost enrollment," he said.

Cunanan said the board is required to publish the resolution but declined to say when it would be published.

"No newspaper would be interested in having it published. We place it on the e-mail list and it’s up to them if they want to publish," he said.

He added, however, that he is unsure if the e-mail had been sent to media organizations.

He said that while he is saddened by the incident, "it would be even worse if we did not correct it."

He adds: "In my seven years here as a board examiner, this is the first time that this happened. It is an isolated case. I, for one, don’t want this to happen more than he does."

FROM:
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=53627

Posted by marisse on Thursday, October 19, 2006 at 4:57 PM | Permalink

GRABE NAMAN ANG PRC NA IYAN!!! NAPAKA-INCOMPETENT TALAGA!!! APAT MAGRESIGN NA MGA COMMISSIONERS PARA MATAPOS NA ANG GULONG IPINAPANGANAK AT PINALALALA NILA!!!

Posted by Anonymous | 2:53 PM

isolated case lang naman yan... utang na loob huwag na ninyong idagdag sa sandamukmuk na complaint sa nursing board exam yan... di naman nagkamali ang PRC sa computation dun... gusto lang nilang magdagdag ng passers... e kaya lang dahil sa makasariling UST, kailangan gamitin ulit ang original computation... malayo po ito sa nursing issue ... utang na loob! :P

Posted by Anonymous | 7:19 PM

Ayoko sa comment no. 2. Bakit tayo ganyan? Parang makasarili tayo? Ayaw nating aminin na nagkamali ang PRC dahil lang napaboran tayo? Wag naman ganyan. Unforgiveable ang ginawa nila sa case ng sanitary engineering. Wag nating sabihing isolated case iyon. Isolated siguro dahil ngayon lang may nagcomplain.

Let us not lose sense of what is right and wrong. Otherwise, talagang nakaka-turn-off tayo.

Posted by Anonymous | 11:29 PM

bakit nman kau ganyan, wag na kaung magsisihan..di naman nagkamali ang PRC, diba???

Posted by Anonymous | 3:57 PM

nu ba tlaga ilalaabas nyo ba pa result ng exam..,nagdusa na nga kmi nun 2006 exam..tapos 2 ngayon grabe tagal nman..agony nmim kakahintay..1 ako sa mga na nawalan ng trust i dont know were 2 blaim...sa goverment ba, na napaka inconsiderate..,parang laban o bawi ang ginawa sa lisence nmim..tpoos UST nman dahil lang ba di kayo nasama sa top nun exam ei 2 makasarili. laki gulo ginawa nyo,,nasisiyahan ba kayo dami nyo nasaktan..

Posted by Anonymous | 11:06 AM