GR L 30918; (July, 1974) (Digest)
G.R. No. L-30918 July 18, 1974
ANNIE SAND, et al., as Chairman and Members of the Board of Examiners for Nurses, petitioners, vs. ABAD SANTOS EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION, SCHOOL OF NURSING and HON. WALFRIDO DE LOS ANGELES, Judge of the Court of First Instance of Rizal, Branch IV, Quezon City, respondents.
FACTS
Respondent Abad Santos School of Nursing filed an action for declaratory relief against the Board of Examiners for Nurses, seeking to nullify Article VIII, Rule 69, Section 5 of the Board’s 1967 Rules and Regulations. This challenged regulation mandated periodic inspection of nursing schools and barred graduates from sub-standard schools, found deficient during their period of study, from admission to the nurses’ licensure examination. The respondent Court of First Instance of Rizal declared the rule void, illegal, and of no effect against the respondent school and its graduates. The lower court reasoned that while the Board had authority to promulgate such rules, they could only apply prospectively to new schools established after the rule’s promulgation, not retroactively to already accredited institutions.
ISSUE
Whether the Board of Examiners for Nurses validly exercised its rule-making authority in promulgating the regulation for periodic inspection and the consequent bar on graduates of sub-standard schools from the licensure examination, and whether such regulation can be applied to existing nursing schools.
RULING
The Supreme Court reversed the lower court’s decision and upheld the validity of the challenged regulation. The Court clarified that the regulation was not being applied retroactively in an invalid sense. The Board’s authority to issue such rules is expressly granted by the Philippine Nursing Act ( Republic Act No. 877 , as amended). Section 3 of the Act empowers the Board to inspect nursing schools and maintain efficient ethical and professional standards. Section 9 authorizes it to promulgate necessary rules, subject to presidential approval. The periodic inspection rule is a valid exercise of this delegated police power to ensure minimum standards are continuously met.
The regulation applies to all existing schools because its purpose is to ensure ongoing compliance with minimum standards, not to impose new substantive requirements retroactively. The Court distinguished between imposing new curricular requirements prospectively and enforcing existing minimum standards. If a school is found deficient during an inspection, it is given one year to make required improvements. The temporary bar on its graduates from taking the exam during the period of deficiency is a necessary consequence to protect public welfare by ensuring only qualified graduates from compliant schools enter the profession. The presumption is that the Board will act justly and reasonably. The ruling ensures that the Board can perform its statutory duty to uphold the quality of nursing education for all schools, regardless of when they were established.