CHED
to close review centers that will
not integrate operations with legit schools
THE Commission on Higher Education (CHED) yesterday warned
independent review centers that there will be no more extensions of the deadline
for them to integrate their operations with schools in order to continue
operating.
Executive Order 566, issued by President Arroyo immediately
after the scandal over the leakage of test questions in the 2006 nursing
licensure examinations, decreed that only accredited and reputable higher
educational institutions would be allowed to operate review classes. The order
also gave CHED the authority to supervise and regulate the operations of these
review centers.
Existing review centers were given one year from November
2006 to integrate their operations with school-based review centers with
permits.
CHED deputy executive director Julio Vitriolo said the final
deadline is in May. "We will no longer extend the deadline. Failure to get the
proper accreditation will mean the closure of independent review centers. We
strongly suggest that they complete the requirements and act now. Otherwise the
CHED provincial office will be clogged with last minute applications which may
not be processed as well be late," he said.
There are close to 400 nursing schools nationwide with
enrolment figures reaching close to 100,000 annually. - Ashzel Hachero
Erap never said he was
alternative to GMA, says son
SAN Juan city Mayor Joseph Victor Ejercito yesterday said the
administration would only create more enemies than it already has if it revokes
the presidential pardon given his father, ousted President Joseph Estrada, after
the latter's conviction for plunder.
"Personally, that would be funny because they are creating
more enemies everyday," Ejercito said.
He denied that his father offered to take over the presidency
should President Arroyo go on leave due to allegations of bribery and corruption
in connection with the canceled national broadband network project.
He said that what his father meant was that he would support
whoever the people wants. "He never said that (he) want(s) to be the
alternative, never did he say that. He has always presented himself as the last
option because all he wants to do is to help the Filipino and the country."
After Estrada's alleged remark on the illegitimacy of
Arroyo's presidency, Justice Undersecretary Ricardo Blancaflor came back with
the warning that Estrada's pardon would not be legitimate either if Arroyo's
presidency was not. Blancaflor said Estrada is in no position to call Mrs.
Arroyo an illegitimate president, considering that he asked and accepted the
pardon from her.
Ejercito did not say if he or his family would join the
interfaith rally against Arroyo in Makati today. - Christian Oineza
Etihad Airways clarifies
report on dead infant
THE captain of the Etihad Airways flight EY 428 from Abu
Dhabi to Manila notified the airline's operations center and the station manager
in Manila for appropriate measures to be taken in preparation for landing after
the body of a dead baby boy was found in the plane's lavatory last Feb. 25.
Fleishman-Hillard Manila, the public relations agency of
Etihad Airways, made this clarification following airport authorities' claim
that the captain did not report the discovery of the infant in advance to alert
airport authorities on proper measures to take.
Grenade explodes in vendor's
hand
A STREET vendor was killed when the grenade he was toying
with exploded accidentally while the coronation night of the Kalilangan Festival
was going on at the Oval Plaza near the General Santos city hall Wednesday
night.
Chief Supt. Felizardo Serapio, Central Mindanao police chief, said three
other people suffered minor blast injuries. He said witnesses told them the
still-unidentified fatality, who suffered a mangled hand, used to always bring
the grenade with him and show it to his friends. - Raymond Africa
