It’s official, the next real estate brokers exam (for retakers only) has been scheduled on December 16, 2017. This is according to PRBRES Resolution No. 171 Series of 2017, which was published in the July 28, 2017 edition of the Philippines Star. Please refer to copy below.
Thanks again to PREVAIL for sharing a copy of PRBRES Resolution No. 171 through their facebook account, which I have shared below. By the way, for those looking for PRC accredited service providers who offer review classes for the brokers exam, I’ll have another post for that.
But Jay, you mentioned others say this is illegal?
Yes, we can expect people to disagree with this, and in fact, XU-BSREM Program started a petition entitled “Professional Regulation Commission: Implement the law, follow the required BSREM Degree for Real Estate Service Exams” at Change.org.
To know why they (and a lot of other people) oppose having another brokers exam for retakers, check out an excerpt of the petition below:
“Section 14, paragraph b, of Republic Act No. 9646, otherwise known as the Real Estate Service Act of the Philippines states,”…as soon as a course leading to a Bachelor’s Degree in Real Estate Service is implemented by CHED, the Board shall make this course a requirement for taking the licensure examination.”
CHED implemented the BSREM Program starting the School Year 2012-2013. The various colleges, schools, and universities in the entire Philippines faithfully complied with and implemented the BSREM Program as mandated by CHED. It was not an easy task, the educational institutions implementing the program struggled to attract students. There were only a few graduates for the first batch of BSREM students in 2015. As a result, only a few BSREM graduates took the brokerage exam in May 2016 (39 takers with 21 passers) and appraisers exam in August 2016 (27 takers with 21 passers). In May 2017, the number of takers improved to 50 BSREM graduates.
However, these gains and the momentum of the BSREM Program is now placed in serious jeopardy because the Professional Regulatory Board of Real Estate Service has passed Resolution No. 171, series of 2017, allowing non-BSREM graduates to retake the brokerage and appraisers exam on September 2017 and December 2017, respectively. This resolution was approved by the PRC on July 28, 2017.
In the annals of our legal system, the rules of statutory construction provides that if the law is clear, there is no ambiguity, and therefore, what is left is to implement the law. RA No. 9646 states clearly, the BSREM Degree should be made by the Board of Real Estate Service as a requirement for the real estate exams. By relaxing this requirement, the Board of Real Estate Service is making an exemption when none is stated in the law. In fact, the Board, whose authority emanates from the law, implemented this provision of the law when it give the non-BSREM REM graduates the last and final chance to take the brokerage and appraisers exam through Resolutions No. 66, series of 2016 and No. 2 series of 2016…”
Click here to view the entire petition at Change.org
Do you agree or disagree with having another real estate brokers exam for retakers?
So what do you think guys? Personally, I haven’t thought about this yet.
Heck, I even forgot about posting PRBRES Resolution 171 … I’m just glad I saw this in my drafts, and I was finally able to publish it.
Anyway, let me know your thoughts through the comments section below.
As a tuition fee payer i find this silly because i put my child in school to study bsrem as it was required. Now you guys allowed non rem to retake again and again. The law was made now who is violating it? You made this law because you wanted to upgrade the quality of real estate brokers knowledge. So how do you compare the professionalism of the non bsrem and bsrem graduates. If this is the case then you should allow retakers of bsrem graduates to take the exam in december this year regardless what year they graduated.
The petitioners argue, “if the law is clear, there is no ambiguity, and therefore, what is left is to implement the law.” To be honest, I don’t think the law is clear here. What is clear is someone who has NEVER taken the exam CANNOT take it. Here, it’s specifically stating that this is only for retakers. That leaves a gray area of interpretation.
The same petition quotes, “the Board shall make this course a requirement for taking the licensure examination”. It may be argued that the status of these retakers at the time where legally allowed to take the exam. it just so happens that they “failed” the 1st time. It’s a lot like falling in line for some application and you were asked to come back because you lacked a requirement resulting in the rejection of your application. For those who already took the effort the 1st time, some leeway is given for returnees, wherein you don’t need to fall back into the end of the queue.
Of course, those already in the queue may argue, “FOUL! FALL BACK IN LINE AT THE END!” The courts will need to end up deciding on that by hearing the arguments from both sides. The danger in making such adjustments to the law normally applies when a precedent is being made. This is hardly a precedent. There are only so many people who would be impacted by this. The number of Retakers who haven’t taken the course are “finite”. They will be cease to exist at some point.
As far as I know, ALL NEW LAWS that are approved w/o any tried and tested histories are always subject to flaws. The RESA law has its share of flaws and this is one of them. An obvious gray area. To those petitioning against this decision, “In what way will this impact your profession?” “In what way will this jeopardize the industry”. If they can present a clear case that the real estate brokerage industry is going to cause damage and compromise the integrity of the profession, to please point out clear arguments rather than just simply saying, “it’s because that’s what the law states!”
By the way, sorry for the blurry image quality of the scanned copy. I was searching for a copy of Philippine Star on the day this was published, but I couldn’t find any, after visiting about 10 convenience stores (it was night already).
If anyone has a clearer copy, would appreciate it. Thanks!