LOCAL examinees of the 2006 Board Examinations for Nurses led by their topnotcher Gringo Sandiego, a Pangasinense from Mangaldan, hailed the decision of the Court of Appeals last Friday allowing some 17,000 of them to take their oaths as nurses, some two months after a court restraining order virtually put them in limbo.

The appellate court’s decision appears to have overtaken plans of the board passers from Pangasinan to file a petition for intervention with that court, articulating their position for “no retake” of the test.

Early last week, the examinees led by Sandiego were seeking the signatures of other successful examinees for a special power of attorney that would have authorized lawyer Raul Lambino to represent them in the CA proceedings.

Friday’s announcement of the court decision was met with a gush of relief from Sandiego and the others who said their “deepest prayers were answered.”

One examinee from Calasiao who asked not to be named, said “It (the CA verdict) stopped certain forces from prolonging our agony, knowing we honestly passed the exam but are being made to suffer.”

“’Yong mga umaayon sa retake, wala sila siguro ni gapatak na konsensiya sa paghihirap namin at ng mga magulang namin,” Ana, another examinee said, overwhelmed by emotion.

For his part, Sandiego who emerged on top of the heap of the 42,000 examinees nationwide, spoke for most of them: “Now we can move on.”

Labor Secretary Arturo Brion, whom President Arroyo had tasked to look into and resolve the issue before the CA issued its ruling, said any Malacanang move on the issue has been pre-empted.

Brion said with the most of the nard passers now allowed to be sworn in as new nurses, government has no choice but to go only after those suspected of involvement in the leakage, apparently referring to the 17 individuals, mostly officers of review centers suspected to have been involved in the leakage in an investigation conducted by the National Bureau of Investigation.