MANILA - Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva is pushing to exempt indigents from paying Professional Regulations Commission (PRC) and Civil Service Commission (CSC) examination fees in order to encourage those who have no means to pay the fees to take professional licensure examinations. In filing Senate Bill 1323 or the "Free Professional Examinations Act," Villanueva said this will lessen the financial burden on graduates who need to undergo professional licensure exams. "It saddens me to think that some of our graduates will not be able to apply what they studied for just because they cannot afford to pay for the examination fee to get their professional license or civil service eligibility," he said. Based on the PRC record, 633,551 examinees took the board exams in 2022, of which 311,381 were first time examinees. The prescribed fees for PRC examination ranges from PHP400 to PHP1,300, depending on the degree and type of examination; while the Career Service