Question & AnswerQ&A (Republic Act No. 4274)
The official title is the "Mining Engineering Law of the Philippines."
The Board is composed of three registered mining engineers, all appointed by the President of the Philippines.
The Board has the authority to administer oaths, issue, suspend, or revoke certificates of registration, investigate violations of the Act, issue subpoenas, and enforce ethical and technical standards for mining engineers.
Members must be Filipino citizens, holders of a mining engineering degree, registered mining engineers with at least ten years of relevant experience, not faculty members of mining engineering schools, and recommended by a bona-fide professional mining engineering society.
Practitioners engaged by the government for consultation, certain foreign technical consultants with restrictions, and those already registered under previous mining engineering or foreman laws are exempted.
The penalty is a fine of not less than one thousand pesos nor more than two thousand pesos, or imprisonment for one to two years, or both.
Applicants must be at least 21 years old (with some exceptions), must be of good moral character, must have graduated with a relevant degree or have adequate mining experience, and foreign applicants must come from countries granting reciprocity.
Examinations are held twice a year on the second Monday of January and July. Subjects include mining engineering and economics, mining laws and ethics, metallurgy, ore dressing and assaying, geology and surveying, and applied mathematics.
The Board may reprimand, suspend, or revoke certificates after due hearing. Grounds include fraud, gross negligence, incompetency, or misrepresentation of work performed.
Operations with 25-50 workers require a registered foreman; 51-100 require one registered mining engineer and one foreman; 25-75 per shift require one foreman per shift and one engineer for the whole operation; over 75 per shift require one foreman and one engineer per shift.