Civil Engineering Practice Regulation Act

Board of Examiners for Civil Engineers

Section 3 requires the creation of a Board of Examiners for Civil Engineers within thirty days after approval of the Act, composed of a chairman and two members appointed by the Secretary of Public Works and Communications.
Section 3 provides a three-year term for appointed Board members, ending upon appointment and qualification of successors; the first appointees serve staggered terms of one year, two years, and three years.
Section 3 requires each Board member to qualify by taking the proper oath of office before performing duties.
Section 3 allows removal by the Secretary of Public Works and Communication for neglect of duty, incompetency, malpractice, unprofessional, unethical, immoral, or dishonorable conduct, after giving the member an opportunity to defend himself in a proper administrative investigation; during investigation, a temporary member must be appointed.
Section 3 provides that vacancies are filled only for the unexpired term.

Board powers, ethics, inspections

Section 4 vests the Board with authority to administer oaths and to issue, suspend, and revoke certificates of registration for the practice of civil engineering.
Section 4 authorizes the Board, subject to the approval of the Secretary of Public Works and Communications, to issue certificates of recognition to civil engineers already registered for advance studies, research, and/or highly specialized training in any branch of civil engineering.
Section 4 empowers the Board to investigate violations and to issue subpoena and subpoena duces tecum to compel witness appearance connected with charges presented to the Board.
Section 4 requires the Board to inspect at least once a year educational institutions offering civil engineering courses and to inspect civil engineering works, projects, or corporations established in the Philippines for purposes of safeguarding life, health, and property.
Section 4 provides that the Director of Public Works and/or authorized provincial and chartered city representatives are ex-officio agents of the Board and must assist enforcement.
Section 4 authorizes the Board, with the Secretary’s approval, to issue rules and regulations necessary to carry out the Act; it also requires the Board to adopt a code of ethics and to have an official seal to authenticate official documents.

Qualifications and compensation of Board members

Section 5 requires each Board member, at appointment, to be a citizen and resident of the Philippines, at least thirty years of age, and of good moral character.
Section 5 requires each Board member to be a graduate of civil engineering from a recognized and legally constituted school, institute, college, or university.
Section 5 requires each Board member to be a registered civil engineer duly qualified to practice in the Philippines.
Section 5 requires at least ten years of practice of civil engineering with a certificate as such before appointment.
Section 5 bars Board membership if the person is a member of the faculty of any school teaching civil engineering or has a pecuniary interest in such institutions.
Section 5 allows a former faculty member of a civil engineering teaching institution to become a Board member only if he stopped teaching for at least three consecutive years.
Section 6 requires the Board to charge PHP 40 for each application for examination and PHP 20 for each certificate of registration.
Section 6 requires Board members to receive PHP 5 compensation for each applicant examined; a government civil engineer appointed as a member receives that compensation in addition to government salary.
Section 6 requires authorized Board expenses to be paid by the collecting and disbursing officer of the Bureau of Civil Service from appropriations made for the purpose.

Annual reporting

Section 7 requires the Board, at the end of each fiscal year, to submit to the Secretary of Public Works and Communications a detailed report of Board activities and proceedings for the covered fiscal year.

Examination and registration requirements

Section 8 requires all applicants for registration to pass a technical examination.
Section 9 requires civil engineering examinations in the City of Manila beginning the second Monday of February and August each year; if those days are official holidays, examinations must be held on the next following days.
Section 10 provides that applicants for certificates of registration shall be examined, in the Board’s discretion, on: mathematics (algebra; plane and spherical trigonometry; analytics; descriptive and solid geometry; differential and integral calculus; rational and applied mechanics), hydraulics, surveying (including highway and railroad surveying; plane, topographic and hydrographic surveying; advance surveying), and design and construction of specified works including highways, railroads, masonry structures, wooden and reinforced concrete buildings, bridges, towers, walls, foundations, piers, ports, wharves, aqueducts, sanitary engineering works, water supply systems, dikes, dams, irrigation and drainage canals.
Section 11 provides that the Commissioner of the Civil Service is the executive officer of the Board and conducts the examinations.
Section 11 requires the Commissioner to designate a subordinate officer of the Bureau of Civil Service to act as Secretary and custodian of records, including examination papers and minutes of Board deliberations.
Section 12 requires applicants, prior to examination, to establish to the Board’s satisfaction that they are at least twenty-one years of age, Philippine citizens, of good reputation and moral character, and graduates of a four-year civil engineering course from a school recognized by the Government or the State where established.
Section 13 requires successful candidates to take a professional oath before the Board of Examiners for Civil Engineers or other authorized government officials before entering practice.
Section 14 requires all registered civil engineers to obtain a seal of design authorized and directed by the Board, with the serial number of the certificate included in the seal design.
Section 14 requires plans and specifications prepared by or under the direct supervision of a registered civil engineer to be stamped with the seal during the certificate’s life.
Section 14 makes it unlawful to stamp or seal documents with the seal after the registrant’s certificate expires or is revoked, unless renewed or re-issued.

Exemptions from registration

Section 15(1)(a) exempts officers or enlisted men of the United States and Philippine Armed Forces and civilian employees of the United States Government stationed in the Philippines while rendering civil engineering services for the United States and/or Philippines.
Section 15(1)(b) exempts civil engineers or experts called in by the Philippine Government for consultation, or specific design and construction of fixed structures as defined under the Act, with practice limited to such work.
Section 15(2)(a) allows any person residing in the Philippines to make plans or specifications for any building in chartered cities or in towns with building ordinances, not exceeding the space requirements specified therein, requiring a civil engineer’s services.
Section 15(2)(b) allows any person residing in the Philippines to make plans or specifications for any wooden building enlargement or alteration for farm purposes only costing not more than ten thousand pesos.
Section 15(2)(c) preserves the right of a person to construct his own wooden or light material residential house using the services of persons required for that purpose without a civil engineer, as long as local ordinances are not violated.
Section 15(3) preserves the ability of draftsmen, student clerk-of-work, superintendents, and other employees lawfully engaged in civil engineering practice to act under instruction, control, or supervision of their employer.
Section 15(4) preserves the right of persons lawfully engaged prior to approval of the Act as “maestro de obras” to continue as such, but bars them from making plans or supervision for: (a) building of concrete whether reinforced or not, (b) building of more than two stories, (c) building with frames of structural steel, and (d) buildings intended for public gathering or assemblies such as theaters, cinematographs, stadia, churches, or structures of like nature.
Section 15(5) allows professional architects and engineers to practice their professions.

Certificate refusal, suspension, and revocation

Section 16 bars issuance of a certificate to any person convicted by a court of competent jurisdiction of any criminal offense involving moral turpitude.
Section 16 bars issuance of a certificate to any person of unsound mind.
Section 16 requires the Board, when refusing issuance, to give the applicant a written statement of reasons, which must be incorporated in the Board’s records.
Section 17 authorizes, subject to approval of the Secretary of Public Works and Communications, suspension or revocation of a certificate for causes mentioned in Section 16, after due notice and hearing.
Section 18 authorizes the Board to entertain an application for a new certificate from a registrant whose certificate was revoked, but only after expiration of one year from the date of revocation and for reasons the Board deems sufficient.
Section 18 requires the application to be in the same form prescribed for examination, while allowing the Board, in its discretion, to exempt the applicant from taking the requisite examination.

Transitory rules and automatic registrations

Section 19 requires that, as soon as the Act takes effect, anyone desiring to practice civil engineering must obtain a certificate of registration in accordance with the Act.
Section 19 provides that civil engineers duly licensed under amended provisions in force at the time the Act takes effect are automatically registered under the Act.
Section 19 provides that certificates of registration held by such licensed civil engineers in good standing have the same force and effect as if issued under the Act.
Section 19 exempts graduates in civil engineering from recognized schools who passed the civil service examination for senior civil engineer and have been practicing or employed in the Government as such during five years from taking the examination.

Enforcement and registration requirement

Section 20 imposes on duly constituted law officers of national, provincial, city, and municipal governments, or any political subdivision thereof, the duty to enforce the Act and prosecute violators.
Section 21 requires that, unless exempt from registration, no person shall practice or offer to practice civil engineering in the Philippines without a proper certificate of registration from the Board of Examiners for Civil Engineers.

Criminal penalties for unauthorized practice

Section 22 makes a misdemeanor of the following acts: practicing or offering to practice civil engineering without registration under the Act; presenting or attempting to use another person’s certificate of registration as one’s own; giving false or forged evidence to the Board; impersonating a registrant civil engineer of a different name; attempting to use a revoked or suspended certificate; assuming, using, or advertising any title or description tending to convey the impression of being a civil engineer without holding a valid certificate; and violating any provision of the Act.
Section 22 provides that, upon conviction, a violator shall be sentenced to a fine of not less than PHP 500 and not more than PHP 2,000, or imprisonment for not less than six months and not more than one year, or both, in the court’s discretion.

Construction supervision by registered engineers

Section 23 makes it unlawful for any person to order or cause construction, reconstruction, or alteration of a building or structure intended for public gathering or assembly (such as theaters, cinematographs, stadia, churches, or structures of like nature) and other engineering structures mentioned in Section 2 unless designs, plans, and specifications are prepared under the responsible charge of, and signed and sealed by, a registered civil engineer.
Section 23 requires that such construction, reconstruction, and/or alteration be executed under the responsible charge and direct supervision of a civil engineer.
Section 23 requires plans and designs to be approved as provided by law or ordinance of the city or province or municipality where the structure is constructed.

Firms and corporations in civil engineering practice

Section 24 permits firms, partnerships, corporations, or associations to engage in civil engineering practice in the Philippines if the practice is carried out under the supervision of a civil engineer or civil engineers holding valid Board certificates.
Section 24 prohibits a firm, partnership, corporation, or association using the name of a person or persons as the firm name from advertising as civil engineers unless the named person or persons are registered civil engineers.

Reciprocity for non-citizen examinees

Section 25 bars a person who is not a citizen of the Philippines at the time of application from taking the examination unless proof is shown in the manner provided by the Rules of Court of specific legal reciprocity by the applicant’s country.
Section 25 requires the proof to show that the applicant’s country admits Philippine citizens to practice without restriction or allows practice after examination on terms of strict and absolute equality, including unconditional recognition of degrees issued by institutions recognized for the purpose by the Government of the Philippines.
Section 25 requires an additional condition: if the applicant is not a Philippine citizen after December 8, 1941, active practice in that profession in the Philippines or the state or country where practicing must not have been interrupted for a period of two years or more prior to July 4, 1946, and the applicant’s country must allow Philippine citizens to practice without restriction or on terms of strict and absolute equality by specific provision of law.

Roster of registered civil engineers

Section 26 requires the Commissioner of Civil Service to prepare a roster of registered civil engineers showing names and places of business periodically but at least once a year.
Section 26 requires the roster copies to be filed with the Secretary of Public Works and Communications and furnished to department heads, mayors of all chartered cities, the Director of Public Works, other bureaus and government entities or agencies, municipal and provincial authorities as needed, and to the public upon request.

Repeal, constitutionality, and effectivity

Section 27 repeals all laws, parts of laws, orders, ordinances, or regulations in conflict with the Act, including parts of Act Numbered Twenty-nine hundred and eighty-five, as amended, pertaining to the practice of civil engineering.
Section 27 preserves the provisions of Act Numbered Thirty-one hundred and fifty-nine amending Act Numbered Twenty-nine hundred and eighty-five, pertaining to the practice of “maestro de obras.”
Section 28 provides separability: if any part or section is declared unconstitutional, the other provisions remain valid.
Section 29 provides effectivity: the Act takes effect upon approval, June 17, 1950.