Soon after it stopped the oath-taking of passers in the June 2006 nursing licensure examinations, the Court of Appeals was asked to nullify earlier oath-takings. It was learned yesterday.

In a four-page supplemental petition for prohibition, Rene Tadle, Earl Francis Sumile, and Michael Angelo Brant of the Task Force Leakage asked the appellate court to include "a further order directing the Professional Regulation Commission to refrain from implementing its Memorandum Order No. 2006-02 to those who passed the June 11 and 12, 2006 nursing licensure exam and to invalidate all oath-takings done under it to restore the status quo ante."

The petitioners noted that the PRC tried "to defeat the rule of law and render moot and academic" their granted petition for a temporary restraining order on oath taking.

"[The order] is obviously intended to slam the door on any judicial inquiry into the actuation of the PRC. The court is amply empowered to crash through such lawless barrier in order to maintain the rule of law," the petition reads.

They said that right after the PRC received a copy of their Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) petition, the PRC issued Memo 2006-06 allowing board passers to take their oaths as registered nurses in the regions starting August 17.

More than 2,000 board passers managed to take their oaths in Cebu and Bacolod cities on Thursday and Friday, just before the appellate court issued the TRO.

The petitioners filed their petition the day before August 16.

In the past, the petitioners said "the PRC has always administered mass oath-taking for all successful examinees."

Together with various nursing groups, the Task Force Leakage had asked the PRC to stop the announcement of the results of the exam and later the oath-taking until the investigations are finished and the scandal over the leaks are resolved.