MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) expects a drop in the deployment of physical therapists abroad over the next year.

This after the Federation of State Board of Physical Therapy in the United States imposed a one-year ban on applicants from the Philippines, Egypt, Pakistan and India from taking the National Physical Therapy Exam (NPTE), the licensure exam needed to be able to work in the US.

The decision comes after the US State Board found evidence that some schools and review centers in the country leaked exam questions. (Read story: Filipino physical therapists banned from taking US tests)

Around 800 to 900 physical therapists out of 1,900 graduates who passed the annual licensure exam in the country will not be able to take the licensure exam in the US.

"In the first half of 2010, we received the same amount of job orders for the whole of last year 1,480," says Atty. Hans Cacdac, POEA Deputy Administrator for Licensing and Adjudication, in an interview on ANC's The Rundown Friday night.  

"With this event, we're looking at a reduction of deployment, at least for the one year period thru 2011."

No violation

The St. Louis Review Center in Manila is one of the review centers allegedly involved in leaking exam questions, a claim its operators deny.

"For the St. Louis Review Center, there is no infringement that happened with us. The case is on appeal," says the president of the St. Louis Review Center Roger Tong-Ann, in an interview on ANC's Rundown.

He insists there was no copyright infringement in the crafting of test questions, as they, as reviewer, had come up with their own.

In the wake of the one-year licensure exam ban, Cacdac says, the labor department can take steps to monitor the process of recruitment.

"What the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) can do is get back to the FED (Federation) and find out ways in which review centers and the process of recruitment of physical therapists could have a higher degree of integrity," Cacdac says. "We also communicated with some recruiters, and the recruiter association of of health service workers from foreign lands are on top of this and making own calls to the federation."

Decision on appeal

DOLE is set to file an appeal seeking to reverse the Federation’s decision.

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz says the Philippine labor attache in the US. has prepared a letter of appeal, adding the Philippines is willing to undertake steps for the ban to be lifted.

Cacdac, however, believes the incident has not completely marred the confidence in the country's pool of medical workers.

"We are not seeing this as an indictment or a commentary on the entire force of physical therapists we've sent since time immemorial. I think the US health care system would have a clear understanding of the kind of services our physical therapists have delivered and I don't think any of these high standards will be undermined by this incident," Cacdac says.

Pursuing regulation

Officials admit government may need to have some control over nursing review centers as there are largely unregulated, despite earlier attempts to place them under the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).

"After the nursing scam in 2006, the government thru an executive order, directed CHED to come up with a CHED Memo Order putting all review centers under CHED, but this was questioned by the review centers," says Commissioner Nilo Rosas of the Professional Regulation Commission.

"The Review Center Association of the Philippines (RECAP) is self-regulating and we're the ones calling on the government to regulate us," says Carl Balita, vice-president of the Review Center Association of the Philippines, and owner of a nursing review center.

"One issue in CHED control was they did not want us to exist that time. Our requirement was to be attached to a school and to exist only as review center. We did not resist regulation," Balita says.

Redeeming RP's image

Amid questions on the integrity of the country's physical therapists, officials now say, assessing the situation and the industry's commitments, and reaching out to concerned agencies, the private sector and review centers is crucial in redeeming the image of the country.

"This is a question of integrity and what's clear in the destination country, the FED would want to make sure they have an honest way of assessing our therapists so they have a minimum way of hurdling the safety standards they have," Cacdac says.

"The team effort is to coordinate a group that will assess the situation: what happened in 2007, and since then, and assess the meeting in Washington DC, look at the commitments we had then, see how far we've gone to attain those commitment and formulate strategies to attain those commitments," he adds.

"We may not have to abolish review center but without sacrificing integrity of licensure, I hope colleges and universities make it part of the curriculum," adds Rosas.