PRC uncovers fake professionals

By Dexter A. See

BAGUIO CITY — Seven professionals, some of them handling sensitive positions in government schools and hospitals, were found by the Cordillera office of the Professional Regulations Commission (PRC) here as having alleged fake licenses.

The discovery was made with the full implementation of the on-line verification of eligibility system (OVES), which was put in place to strengthen the national government’s effort to rid the bureaucracy and the private sector of fake professionals.

OVES is a paper-less transaction with the PRC to ascertain whether or not a professional handling a license is legitimate based on the PRC’s list of professionals.

Among the fake professionals, two were found in the Cordillera while the rest were in the Ilocos Region and Cagayan Valley.

Teofilo Gaius Sison, regional director of the PRC Baguio regional office, said the fake professionals included three teachers, a nutritionist and dietician, a registered nurse, a medical technologist and a midwife.

According to Sison, appropriate charges of falsification of public documents have already been filed against the fake professionals and they have already been reportedly discharged from the government and private offices they are working during first quarter of this year.

OVES provides an immediate verification of the eligibility of a certain professional in less than two minutes. It will be implemented in other PRC regional offices in the country once its merit is verified.

Because of the successful implementation of the OVES in the region, Sison said the agency will launch the OVES in its satellite office in San Fernando City, La Union in partnership with the Region I offices of the Department of Labor and Employment and the Civil Service Commission.

The PRC official warned professionals who were able to secure their licenses through illegal means that their days are now counted because of the OVES.

He encouraged all private and public employers to first validate the licenses of their workers and their prospective applicants with the agency to ascertain that they are legitimate professionals.

Aside from facing charges of falsification of public documents, the fake professionals have already lost their employment which they had for several decades as well as the forfeiture of their benefits and privileges with their private and public employers.

Sison expects the agency to discover more fake professionals in Northern Luzon in the coming months once the OVES is put in place in the Ilocos Region and Cagayan Valley.