Philippine Geodetic Engineering Act of 1998

Title, issuance, and effectivity rule

Section 1 provides that the law is known as the “Philippine Geodetic Engineering Act of 1998.”
The Act is February 26, 1998 and was approved by the President on February 26, 1998.
Section 34 provides that the Act takes effect 15 days following its publication in the Official Gazette or in a major daily newspaper of general circulation in the Philippines, whichever is earlier.
Section 30 provides transitory rules for the existing Board and for Junior Geodetic Engineers.
Section 27 provides that the Board’s implementing rules and regulations are effective after 30 days following their publication in the Official Gazette or in a major daily newspaper of general circulation (subject to Commission approval).

Board of Geodetic Engineering: creation and officers

Section 3 creates a Board of Geodetic Engineering composed of a chairman and two (2) members to be appointed by the President from a list of three (3) recommendees for each position chosen, ranked, and submitted by the duly integrated and accredited association of geodetic engineers.
Section 3 requires the Board to be organized not later than six (6) months from the effectivity of the Act.
Section 5 provides that Board members hold office for a term of three (3) years and until successors are appointed and qualified.
Section 5 provides that first appointees shall have staggered terms: one (1) member for three (3) years, one (1) for two (2) years, and one (1) for one (1) year.
Section 5 permits reappointment of the chairman or a member for another term but prohibits continuous service beyond six (6) years.
Section 5 requires each member to qualify by taking the proper oath of office before performing duties.
Section 9 places the Board under the administrative supervision of the Professional Regulation Commission (Commission) and assigns the Commission the custodian function for Board records.

Eligibility, vacancy removal, and safeguards

Section 4 requires Board members to be natural born citizens and residents of the Philippines.
Section 4 requires Board members to be at least 40 years of age at the time of appointment.
Section 4 requires Board members to be registered Geodetic Engineers with a valid professional license and active practice in Geodetic Engineering for not less than 10 years prior to appointment.
Section 4 bars Board members who are members of faculty of any school/academy/institute/college/university where a regular course in Geodetic Engineering is taught, or who have pecuniary interest in, or administrative supervision over, such institutions.
Section 4 bars Board members who, for three (3) consecutive years prior to appointment, are connected with a review center or a group/association offering or conducting review classes or lectures for the licensure examination.
Section 4 bars Board members who have been convicted of any offense involving moral turpitude.
Section 7 allows the President to remove a Board member upon the Commission’s recommendation for: neglect of duty or incompetence; violation or tolerance of violation of the Act or the Code of Ethics; or final judgment of a crime involving moral turpitude.
Section 7 requires due notice and hearing with respect for the right to be heard and to defend, assisted by counsel, in a proper administrative investigation, and allows an appeal within 15 days from written notice to the President, whose decision is final and executory.

Powers, duties, oversight, and reports

Section 8 authorizes the Board to promulgate and adopt rules and regulations needed to carry out the Act.
Section 8 tasks the Board to supervise examination, registration, licensure, and practice of Professional Geodetic Engineering in the Philippines.
Section 8 authorizes the Board to administer oaths to successful examinees, to issue Certificates of Registration, and to issue, suspend, or revoke licenses.
Section 8 authorizes adoption of an official seal and provides that the Board may take measures to enhance and maintain high professional and ethical standards.
Section 8 requires coordination with the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to ensure educational institutions comply with CHED policies, standards, and requirements regarding curriculum, faculty, library, and facilities.
Section 8 requires the Board to prescribe and/or adopt a Code of Ethical and Professional Standards and to coordinate guidelines for a Continuing Professional Education (CPE) program with the integrated and accredited association.
Section 8 empowers the Board to hear and try administrative cases involving violations of the Act, implementing rules, and the Code of Ethics, and to issue subpoenas and subpoenas duces tecum to secure witnesses and document production.
Section 8 authorizes the Board to prepare, adopt, issue or amend examination subject syllabi, and to approve, issue, limit, or revoke temporary licenses to practice.
Section 9 provides that the Commission keeps Board records, including applications, examination papers and results, minutes of deliberation, administrative cases, and investigations.
Section 10 requires the Board to submit an annual report at the close of each calendar year to the President through the Commission, detailing proceedings and accomplishments and making recommendations to upgrade and improve conditions affecting the practice of Geodetic Engineering.

Licensing, examinations, registration conditions

Section 11 requires all applicants for registration to undergo and pass a written technical examination.
Section 12 requires each applicant to establish: Philippine citizenship and graduation of Bachelor of Science in Geodetic Engineering from a Government-recognized school, academy, institute, or college.
Section 13 authorizes the Board to suspend or revoke a Certificate of Registration obtained through misrepresentation in the application for examination.
Section 14 requires the examination to cover: Mathematics; Theory and Practice of Surveying; Property Surveying including Isolated, Cadastral, Mineral and Mining Surveys; Cartography and Photo-grammetry; Geodesy, Geodetic Surveying and Least Squares; Engineering Surveys and Construction Surveying; Laws on Natural Resources including Laws on Property, Land Registration and Agrarian Reform; Laws on Obligations and Contracts; and Code of Ethics of the Profession.
Section 14 permits the Board to amend the subjects and syllabi to conform to technological changes and continuing trends in the profession.
Section 15 requires passing standards: weighted general average of 70%, with no subject grade below 55%.
Section 15 requires re-taking: an examinee with weighted general average 70% or higher but with any subject grade below 55% must take the examination in the subject(s) with grades below 55%.
Section 16 requires the Board to submit each candidate’s rating to the Commission within 20 days after the examination (unless extended for just cause), and to send ratings by mail by using the submitted mailing envelope upon release of results.
Section 17 requires that an applicant failing the examination for the third time may take another examination only after the lapse of one year.
Section 18 requires all successful candidates to take the Oath of Profession before the Board or a government official authorized to administer oaths before entering practice.
Section 19 provides that a Certificate of Registration is issued to those who pass, subject to payment of registration fees.
Section 19 provides that the Certificate bears signatures of the Board Chairman and the PRC Chairman and is stamped with the Board official seal indicating the person is a registered Geodetic Engineer.
Section 19 provides that every registrant, upon payment of professional fees, receives a professional license bearing registration number, issuance date, expiry date, and the Board Chairman’s signature.
Section 19 prohibits practice: no person may practice Geodetic Engineering in the Philippines unless licensed in the manner provided.
Section 19 provides that a licensee may practice with privileges appurtenant thereto until expiration of license validity.

Seal, signatures, government endorsement ban

Section 20 requires each registrant, upon registration, to obtain the seal designed by the Board.
Section 20 requires that plans and specifications prepared by or under the direct supervision of a registered Geodetic Engineer must be stamped with that seal during the validity of the professional license.
Section 20 prohibits stamping/sealing after license expiration or loss of validity unless reinstated and/or unless the license is renewed.
Section 20 prohibits government officers or employees tasked with enforcement, and chartered cities/provinces/municipalities, from accepting or endorsing survey plans or documents that are not prepared, submitted, signed, and sealed in full accord with the Act, and from approving any payment for work whose plans and documents are not so prepared, signed, and sealed by a duly licensed Geodetic Engineer.
Section 20 requires that a Geodetic Engineer shall not sign, affix seal, or use any signature method on plans/documents made under another Geodetic Engineer’s supervision unless the manner clearly indicates the part actually performed by that engineer.
Section 20 prohibits signing by any person other than the Geodetic Engineer in charge for any branch of work or function not actually performed by him.
Section 20 provides that the Geodetic Engineer in charge is fully responsible for all plans, specifications, and other documents issued under his seal or authorized signature.
Section 20 directs the Board to formulate, adopt, and promulgate necessary rules for the design of the seal and for signing and sealing of drawings, specifications, reports, and other documents.
Section 20 states that plans and documents signed/stamped/sealed as instruments of service are property and documents of the Geodetic Engineer if they have not been accepted and/or paid.
Section 21 requires the Geodetic Engineer to indicate the professional license number and the duration of validity, including the professional tax receipt number, on documents he signs, uses, or issues in connection with the practice of the profession.

Grounds for discipline, temporary/special permit cancellation

Section 22 empowers the Board, after due notice and hearing, to revoke or suspend a Geodetic Engineer’s license or cancel a temporary/special permit for causes specified in the preceding sections, including fraud or deceit in obtaining a Certificate of Registration, incompetence, negligence, or abetment of illegal practice; and violation of the Act, its implementing rules, and/or Board policies including the Code of Ethics for Geodetic Engineers.
Section 22 provides that Board actions are appealable to the Commission within 15 days from written notice.

Authorized practice rules and organizational structure

Section 23 grants automatic registration to all practicing Geodetic Engineers registered at the time the Act takes effect.
Section 24 provides that Geodetic Engineering is a professional service where admission is based on an individual’s personal qualifications and the Geodetic Engineer is responsible for the correctness of the survey work.
Section 24 states that no other person or government entity should go over the Geodetic Engineer’s work unless grossly defective in connection with other works, in which case an investigation committee is created and commissioned by the Commission.
Section 24 prohibits any firm, company, partnership, association, or corporation from being registered or licensed as such for the practice of Geodetic Engineering.
Section 24 allows firms/partnerships/associations to obtain SEC registration using the term “Geodetic Engineers” only when composed among persons who are properly registered and licensed Geodetic Engineers, and prohibits membership/association unless each member is duly registered and licensed as a Geodetic Engineer; it also restricts Geodetic Engineer members to render work and services proper for a Geodetic Engineer as defined in the Act.
Section 25 integrates the Geodetic Engineering profession into one (1) national organization recognized by the Board and the Commission as the only integrated and accredited Association of Professional Geodetic Engineers.
Section 25 provides that upon registration with the Board, every professional Geodetic Engineer automatically becomes a member of the integrated and accredited national organization and receives its benefits and privileges.
Section 25 provides a three (3) years period for those registered when the Act took effect but not members of the organization to register as members.
Section 25 provides that membership in the integrated and accredited organization does not bar membership in other associations of the profession.
Section 26 prohibits issuing a temporary license or granting rights/privileges under the Act to a foreign Geodetic Engineer unless the foreigner’s country specifically permits Filipino Geodetic Engineers to practice within its territorial limits on the same basis.

Implementing rules, funding, enforcement, and transitory provisions

Section 27 requires the Board to adopt and promulgate, subject to Commission approval, rules and regulations including the Code of Ethics for Geodetic Engineers, to carry out the Act, effective after 30 days following publication in the Official Gazette or a major daily newspaper of general circulation.
Section 28 directs that sums necessary to carry out the Act be included in the General Appropriations Act of the year following enactment and thereafter.
Section 28 requires utilization of 50% of fees derived from examination, registration, and licenses by the Board for administrative and operational expenses, including enhancement of the Geodetic Engineering profession.
Section 29 designates the Commission as the enforcement agency of the Board, requiring it to implement the Act’s provisions, enforce Board-adopted implementing rules, conduct investigations upon complaints (including violations of the profession’s Code of Conduct), and prosecute when warranted.
Section 30 provides transitory governance: the existing Board of Geodetic Engineering continues to function until the new Board is constituted pursuant to the Act.
Section 30 provides that examinations for Junior Geodetic Engineers cease upon effectivity of the Act.
Section 30 allows incumbent Junior Geodetic Engineers to continue practicing as such for five (5) years from effectivity, during which they must finish the Bachelor of Science in Geodetic Engineering course; completion qualifies them to take the Geodetic Engineer Licensure Examinations.

Offenses and penalties

Section 31 provides that, in addition to administrative sanctions, any person who violates any provision of the Act is subject upon conviction to a fine of not less than PHP 50,000.00 nor more than PHP 200,000.00, imprisonment of not less than six (6) months nor more than six (6) years, or both, at the discretion of the court.

Separability, repeals, and effectivity

Section 32 provides a separability rule: if any part is declared unconstitutional or invalid, the judgment does not affect other parts, and only the clause/provision/paragraph/part directly involved is confined to the controversy.
Section 33 repeals Republic Act No. 4374 and Presidential Decree Nos. 202 and 335, and modifies, supersedes, or repeals inconsistent laws, decrees, executive orders, and other administrative issuances and parts accordingly.
Section 34 sets the effectivity at 15 days after publication in the Official Gazette or major daily newspaper of general circulation, whichever is earlier.