ROSALES—Beware of fake professionals who serve you.

This was the warning of Commissioner Jose Cueto Jr. of the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) as he encouraged people to report fake professionals so that appropriate charges may be filed against them.

Cueto told local newsmen during the inauguration of the regional office of the PRC in Rosales town that many have been already arrested and charged in the agency’s ongoing campaign against fake professionals.

Cueto said the practice of some who present fake (PRC) certificates or simply practice a profession they are not duly licensed has become rampant.

He said a 2009 memorandum of agreement with the National Bureau of Investigation is being updated in the campaign to ferret out illegal practitioners.

Once a report about a fake professional is received and validated, NBI builds up a case and files the case in court against a fake professional, he said.

Most fake professionals were found practicing as a physician, optometrist, nurse, teacher or engineer, he added.

Cueto cited several cases: 1) A fake engineer who worked abroad was finally arrested after illegally practicing the profession for 15 years. 2) A fake physician set to be promoted in a local government unit was discovered after he was told he needed to get an updated PRC identification card. 3) A school nurse was practicing the profession since the 1990s. faked her board rating and her PRC ID.

Others also used the PRC number of another genuine professional who is really registered and licensed but has a different name from the user or the fake professional.

“So we encourage our societies and organizations to report to us because sometimes the boards are limited like the Board of Medicine which is composed of only six members or the Board of Dentistry which has only five so they cannot cover the whole Philippines,” Cueto said. (PhilStar wire service)

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