Region XII

General Santos City

Mindanao State University

Case Study: Strategies of Reformations and Specifications on the RA No. 544 or

Formally Known as Civil Engineering Law in the Philippines

(A Requirement for CVE173: Civil Engineering Law, Contracts and Ethics)

College of Engineering
Civil Engineering Department

The Researcher:
Mervin C. Biloy

Professor:
Engr. Steve Anthony Lim

2021
Case Study: Strategies of Reformations and Specifications on
the RA No. 544 or Formally Known as Civil Engineering Law
in the Philippines

The Republic Act No. 544 or formally known as Civil Engineering Law has
been serving to regulate the practice of civil engineering here in the Philippines. It was
approved on July 17, 1950, and was amended by Republic Act 1582 that was approved
on June 16, 1956. As old as it says, this law was last amended almost sixty-five years.
Sixty-five years and sure entails concerns relative to rapid globalization, the likes of
climate change and socioeconomic issues which we are the today’s people are
constantly battling. In the minds of the civil engineers, it is a matter that they will
always be confronted with challenges to build and design alleviating the said issues. The
million-dollar questions go these, does this law surpass time and would still be viable to
provide solutions to the present? Or, does it need to be amended again because it is too
old, out-of-date and some policies are not making any sense?

In further reevaluation of the RA No. 544, the researcher has sorted points to
carry out solutions from which the law lacks and needs to be changed. Here is the list.

1. An environmentally motivated Filipino civil engineer was never been

mentioned in the said law.
2. The context of the law is not adaptive to the worsening climate change.
3. Lack of competency of the Filipino civil engineers in the global market.
4. The hosting city which Manila as indicated, there were several cities of today
which cater exams for our civil engineering aspirants. Also, the fees that the
board of examiners receives are outdated.

On this note, RA No. 544 must immediately be amended due to this

circumstance that does not align with what the law says.

Section 2 of Article 1 describes what civil engineering is capable of from

consultations, designs, planning, and construction of bridges, buildings, irrigation, and
many more to mention bounded to what institutions have taught us to be. It is plainly
what someone reads in a book. Though it might sound complete and rightful, the article
misses something. It did not mention civil engineers as pro-actives when it comes to
environmental protection and sustainability. Adding to Section 2 should be like “… civil
engineers are environmentalists.” Why should this be given an emphasis? Many
decades have passed, we have transcended an era of growing developments that are
unsustainable and these greatly impacted the environment in a bad way (Nnodu, 2005).
Civil engineers play an important role in this matter. David and Comwell (1998), gave
importance to civil engineers since the profession itself uses natural resources, they
should be concerned with environmental protection with the application of scientific
knowledge and engineering principles which is known as environmental engineering.
We already have existing environmental engineers that have been providing us solutions
to related environmental problems if not decades, five millennia, or during ancient times
(Leonard, 2001). The newly added statement to Section 2 of Article 1 implies that civil
engineering aspirants do not have to be environmental engineers to help our mother
Earth. Rather, environmental protection must be instilled and pushed to for our civil
engineers, or best it must be innate. According to Fuller (1969), the concept of law
pushes people from the pressure toward an effort or level of comprehension and
appreciation. Thus, making it part of the law guarantees civil engineers to be
environmentalists.

Relevant to my first point, the context of the law is not adaptive to the worsening
climate change. During the declaration of RA No. 544, they might not have thought of
climate change. To practice civil engineering to its optimal purpose, one must not only
do the prior tasks but must also consider causal-effect relationships. Hence, the law
must add a policy to strengthen the awareness of Filipino civil engineers when it comes
to climate change. There is uncertainty as to what will happen decades after the
infrastructure is built. One cannot estimate the changes and thus requires extensive
knowledge and learning time after time. Not only it saves probable losses like
economically in the latter times, but it also secures the lives of many. Civil engineering
methods must be a risk-free approach and a potential resistance to climate change Olsen
(2015). To strengthen this, a policy should be added. This policy will work to immerse
civil engineers into different activities regarding climate change. The policy should
require civil engineers to acquire new skills and knowledge to adapt to climate change
and must have certificates or other tokens of validation as proofs. If failed to do so,
renewal of PRC id will never be approved. According to Walters (2011), training and
workshops are engines that amplify the growth of a person. Also, learning is a wise
investment that will always be useful especially at times like worsening climate change.

Another problem that arose from the law is the lack of competency among
Filipino civil engineers in the global market. It did not mean that a hundred percent of
the population is incompetent; rather it speaks to the ones included. What made the
researcher say that there are incompetent Filipino civil engineers?

Gepulango (2011) stated that civil engineering fresh graduates from the
Philippines are hardly recognized in most countries around the world. One reason he
said is the number of years required to earn a civil engineering degree. Here in the
Philippines, before, it takes only fifteen years to complete the course while a minimum
or not less than sixteen years to the rest of the countries. As of now, Philippine
education has adapted to K-12 and the program might cause a staggering effect most
especially to our future civil engineers. A study was conducted by Poso (2007) about
the level of competencies among the Filipino civil engineers working in Northern Samar,
rated by the civil engineers themselves and the heads of industries/companies hiring
civil engineers. The majority of the respondents were male, young, have passed the
licensure examination for civil engineers, are employed in government institutions,
worked jobs related to civil engineering, have attended at least seven
training/workshops, and seven years and more of experience. Few of the respondents
pursued higher post-baccalaureate studies. The study showed that civil engineers have
rated themselves moderately competent when it comes to the level of competency. They
have ranked first in managerial skills and lowest as to their au fait to latest technology
and developments. Their technical expertise showed the highest while the
communication skill placed lowest. It does speak to all civil engineers in the country
since all are under the body of the institution. With this matter, our civil engineering
cannot cope up with global trends, thus, the law should impose a policy to bolster the
competency of our civil engineers as it reflects what kind of education this country has.
First on the policy is to require fresh graduate civil engineers to take apprenticeship
before or after the board exam. According to Davis (2019), apprenticeships play an
important role in building technical skills and industry knowledge to which the
employer pays for the courses as well. Not only one can work to get a qualification, but
will also get paid. Apprenticeships open greater opportunities and give the civil
engineers options to which path to cross as it shows real-time expectations of the job.
The apprentice will be exposed to how everything flows and also mentors can give
advice. At the end of the program, one will be in a full-time and permanent job. Institute
of Civil Engineers (ICE) has formed methods to improve apprenticeship among civil
engineers. One of which is applying an “end-point assessment” to ensure consistency
and quality, testing the knowledge, skills, and attitude the apprentice accumulated
throughout the apprenticeship. Another is letting mentors coach their mentees regarding
professional qualification requirements. An example is visitations to workplaces,
colleges, or universities to check progress, and mentors will advise and guide the
apprentice. The professional qualification develops individuals, it maximizes the
potential and increases job satisfaction. Apprenticeship is a proven way of assessing
acquired competencies, thus, must be put into the law (The National Network of
Business and Industry Associations, 2014)

A supplementary solution is to reform the requirements to be licensed. After

civil engineering students graduated, they are evaluated through the licensure
examination which Philippine Regulatory Commission handles. Upon passing the civil
engineering licensure exam, they can now practice what they have learned in the field
and be called licensed civil engineers which are completely it (Poso, 2017). If civil
engineering aspirants are sorted not only based on written and multiple-choice exams
but for other skills required for the profession, we could produce highly competent civil
engineers. The law should make the licensure examination stricter by putting students to
a test like a panel interview to assess their communication skills and whatever skills are
needed to be a globally competitive civil engineer. Let us take New York which is
known as one of the countries with the best and highly-competent civil engineers.
According to Ennis and Friedman (2019), New York is famous for many reasons and
one of which is its complex geography. Civil engineering plays a crucial role to deter
challenges posed by nature. Prominent structures in New York include rail tunnels,
bridges like Brooklyn Bridge, skyscrapers, underwater vehicular, etc. which plenty are
world record breakers. It did not only give New York recognition around the world but
it opened a multi-facet of opportunities that paved way for the city to boom its economy.
Civil engineers are constantly pushing their limits from the pressure to produce creative
solutions and make New York the best as it has always been. If there is one thing the
Philippines should do, it is to adapt to what New York did to produce highly-skilled and
highly competitive civil engineers. Same as Philippines’, a licensed New York civil
engineer must have earned a minimum of 12 years of education or experience, a four-
year bachelor’s degree, and a board examination of which they call Professional
Engineer exam only available if the student has already done the Fundamental
Engineering exam (FE). The Fundamental Engineering exam (FE) is a six-hour
multiple-choice exam for fresh graduates. What separates New York from ours is an
apprenticeship (aforementioned above) of at least four years. The employer will
evaluate the apprentice after the commitment ends. This evaluation contains merits and
recommendations that the apprentice is liable and ready for licensure and will be
reevaluated by the people handling this matter. If permitted by the authorities, the
apprentice can now proceed to the Professional Engineer exam which is an eight-hour
examination to test the competency after gaining experience on hands-on training from
the apprenticeship. Once passed, the licensed civil engineer is hereafter capable of
bidding contracts or makes a firm. The Philippines must follow the same procedures to
guarantee highly-skilled and globally competitive Filipino civil engineers. Hence,
Section 12 of Article III which is a qualification for examination must be reformed to:
“... a. Be at least twenty-one years of age;
b. Be a citizen of the Philippines;
c. Be of good reputation and moral character;
d. Be a graduate of a four-year course in civil engineering from a school,
institute, college or university recognized by the Government or the State
wherein it is established,
e. Must have passed the fundamental exam after finishing bachelor’s degree,
and
f. Must have at least gained 4 years of work experience (apprenticeship).”

Last on the flaws listed is the irrelevance of Section 6 of Article II and Section 9
of Article III. An insistence for the amendment is absolute due to these policies which
are not making any sense to the present. Section 9 of Article III discusses the place
where the examination will take place. The policy says that it only happens in Manila.
On the contrary, here is the list of cities that hosted the 2019 civil engineering board
exam: Manila, Baguio, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, Davao, Iloilo, Legazpi, Lucena,
Pagadian, Tacloban, Tuguegarao, and Zamboanga (Philippine Regulatory Commission,
2019). Moreover, Section 6 of Article II discusses the fees and compensations the board
of examiners gets. This policy is true to the time which the exam was still not in
multiple-choice. The Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers (2013) sold samples of
questions on the 1995 civil engineering board examination. The 1995 board exam
contained problems that required solutions for the answer. Thus, manual checking by
the board of examiners is a must which they are paid for. On the other hand, the recent
board exams were multiple-choice. Hence, the method to check these papers was
through a machine, Philippine Regulatory Commission (2019) said 23,930 aspirants
took the board exam in the year 2019, there is no way it will be checked manually.
Regarding the fee, Yap (1996) discussed how wages gradually changed since 1945 due
to inflation. If the method of manual checking still exists, 15 pesos for each paper
checked would not make any sense for today’s wage for the board of examiners.

Republic Act 544 or the Civil Engineering Law is there and continuously
carrying out principles for the progress of civil engineering here in the Philippines. Yet,
if it does not further the improvements as it supposed to be working, then our civil
engineering, education, organizations, our economy, and internal relations would be in
constant stagnancy - an irony. The points the researcher has pointed out showed clearly
the flaws of this law. The forgotten emphasis on environmental protection and
sustainability, the reformation of requirements to get a license, and the policies that are
irrelevant to this current time, directly screams for a change. All these will matter in due
time if we won’t act now. If we intend to foster the present for the next generations and
make this law survive and surpass time, it must be amended. Republic Act 544 must be
amended immediately.
Reference:

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Davis, R. (2019). How ICE is helping to encourage civil engineering
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