MALASIQUI, Pangasinan – Rep. Rachel Arenas of the Third District of Pangasinan has appealed to the Department of Public Works and Highways to speed up the construction of the Calvo Bridge in Bayambang.

A vital link from Bayambang town to Bautista, the Calvo Bridge underwent construction by the third quarter of last year but appeared the work is not making any progress at all.

Arenas was informed that the people are now getting impatient over the sluggish pace of construction of the Calvo bridge. Read more

Freeliner by Diego B. Ledda, Jr.

THE scandal pertaining to the leakage of the Nursing Board Examination last June 2006 has created a bad image for the nursing profession. What hurts the examinees most is that the proposal of the Nursing Council of the Philippines to hold the National Council for Language Examination (NCLEX) required by the United States for nurses in the Philippines will be frozen. And according to the Board, the Philippines will no longer be considered in the near future as one of the sites of the examination.

Statements from several schools particularly St. Luke’s Hospital is very alarming that they won’t hire nurses from this batch of board passers. Of course, much more from countries recruiting nurses from our country.

The leakage in the board examination is now a subject of controversy considering two of the five subjects are involved. These are: Mental Problems adn Clinical Surgery. Mr. Dante Ang, the Chairman for Overseas Filipino Workers, was apparently digusted over the leakage issue. He is one of the persons who is pushing the holding of the NCLEX in the country.

Initially, NCLEX is available only in Hongkong, United Kingdom and South Korea. But in the past years, Taiwan and Japan were added to the list. Our nurses who want to work in the USA have to go to these countries to take the exams. Some of the charges are personal while recruitment agencies offer it for free, not knowing that these are normally imputed to their recruitment fees.

Board examination leakage is also done by unscrupulous review schools and colleges or universities in order to gain fame through most number of board passers or even for topping the examination or by some schools where they are being subjected to closure due to unproductivity.

In fact, during our Board Examination for the licensure of Certified Public Accountants in May 1983, there was a leakage scandal involving review schools. I was then reviewing at the PRTC Review School in Manila. The subject involved was Law and Taxation and was the only subject in question out of nine subjects. How much more with two subjects out of five as in the case of the recent Nursing Board Exam?

During a break in our examination, it was found out that the leakage given out were all there in the examination. Since the leakage was known to the other examinees, the issue came out all over the newspapers. My review school joined the protest of many schools marching on the streets in front of the PRC building and condemning the PRC Board of Accountancy (BOA) officials that resulted in the resignation of the Chairman and some officials of the BOA. The decision was to re-take the examination, so our stay in Manila had to be extended for another week. The difference between the PRC officials during that year and this time is that they are more sensitive to criticism that time and have delicadeza so to speak.

The June 2006 batch must re-take the two subjects. This is to restore the lost integrity and competence that many people and employers lost from them and the perception that they chated their way to the profession must be erased. Importantly, nurses hold the lives of the people and a single error cannot reverse the action taken on their patients. A scoundrel would always cheat others out of her incompetence.

It hurts that many good people had to suffer for the evil works of few people. But if they realy believe that they are capable nurses, why not? This is to erase the impression, especially on the topnothcers that, they benefited  from the leakage. For how can they be so proud of their certificates or individual licenses if it is tainted with doubts? The review schools and the  PRC officials involved must be punished soa s not to repeat the same or similar incursion in the future.
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DAGUPAN CITY - The first of its kind recall electin in Northern Luzon and possibly in the entire country was held last August 26 in barangay Herrero-Perez East under the supervision of the Commission on Elections to fill out one of the six seats for kagawad (councilman).

The recall election was held even if the barangay elections would be made one year from now possibly after the local elections slated in 2007. Read more

by Joseph C. Bacani

DAGUPAN CITY - An increase in the number of patients admitted at the Region I Medical Center here due to dengue fever has been noted, according to Dr. Jesus D. Canto, director of the RIMC, during a radio interview with Aksyon Radyo recently.

Canto disclosed that, based on hospital records and statistics, patients admitted for dengue on a monthly basis from January to July this year averaged from 10 to 15 cases. However, during the month of August — which has not even ended yet — the number has virtually doubled as it has already reached 30 cases. Read more

THE TREND toward which our workers in various fields and professions are moving — that of going abroad — is putting our country at a great disadvantage.

True, we are benefiting in terms of dollar remittances which our country badly need to boost our ailing economy, but our own need for competent workforce is dangerously at stake.

We say “dangerously at stake” because we also need the services of these workers as much - if not more - as other nations do.

Take for instance our nurses. If we make a random survey in local hospitals alone, it is very evident that most of them are inferiorly staffed in terms of nurses. By this, we mean that the more experienced and learned nurses have already gone to foreign shores for better employment, thus leaving behind the neophytes who have barely gotten out of school. Now, these hospitals handle the most delicate job of treating the sick and saving lives of people. If the medical staffs manning them lack training, we can just imagine how perilous it is for the millions of Filipinos to entrust their safety with incompetent hands.

Same is true in the field of education. We know that the education of the youth is the most vital step in achieving our country’s goal of full development. Yet, where are the better teachers now? They have flown to other countries that can give them higher pay and better opportunities.

We take pride in having the greatest number of overseas workers. We consider it an honor that foreign employers take preference for Filipinos. But alas, while other countries benefit from the expertise of our OFWs, here we are, contenting ourselves with the residual working class.

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan - Army soldiers and policemen foiled an attempt by about 30 heavily armed New People’s Army (NPA) rebels who planned to attack the municipal hall and police station in Natividad town, some 65 kilometers east here Monday night.

Sr. Supt. Alan Purisima, police provincial director, said the attackers were NPA rebels from the adjacent province of Nueva Ecija who consider eastern Pangasinan as part of their operational jurisdiction.

But before the NPAs were able to reach the town proper, they were repulsed by elements of the 71st Infantry Battalion and the police led by Sr. Inspector Bernardo Aromin, chief of police of Natividad in sitio Simmimbaan, barangay Batchelot East. Read more

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan - Public safety first before profit.

This is the gist of a resolution filed by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan Majority Floorleader John Agerico B. Rosario urging concerned government agencies to come up with accreditation guidelines for private vans for hire in Pangasinan.

Rosario noted an increasing number of private vans which doulbe as public utilty vehicle even without the necessary franchises or authorization.

These private vehicles ply different routes inside and outside the province and raking in money in direct competition to legitimate operators who pay franchise fees and other obligations to the government, he pointed out. Read more

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