Press Release
October 29, 2007

SUSPENDED IMPLEMENTATION OF ARCHITECTURE LAW HAMPERING EFFORTS TO BUILD PUBLIC STRUCTURES DISTINCTLY FILIPINO

CEBU CITY - Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today deplored the continued failure to implement the Architecture Act (Republic Act 9266) three years after it was enacted into law due to a court injunction arising from a suit lodged by the Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers, Inc. (PICE).

Pimentel said the prolonged suspension of the Architecture Act of 2004, of which he is the principal author, has humstrung the efforts to a encourage the design and construction of public buildings and facilities that will capture the culture, character and soul of the Filipino people - the national identity.

"If we can get the government to require that the culture, the character and the soul of the Filipino be reflected in all its public works, I supposed that there would be a renaissance of the Filipino spirit that is so badly needed to counterbalance the inroads that globalization makes in the lives of people in the world today. To do that, we need the service of the architects of the country," Pimentel told the United Architects of the Philippine during its 16th National Conference at the Waterfront Hotel in Cebu City.

"The minority leader said the suspension of the Architecture Acts is highly irregular because the injunction issued May 24, 2005 merely covered the suspension of certain sections (section 302.3 and 302.4) of the 2004 Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations of the 1977 National Building Code of the Philippines, as embodied in Presidential Decree 1096.

Pimentel cited a study showing that neither the PICE case nor the injunction they sought was about the Architecture Act of 2004.

In fact, he said Armando Alli, Chairman of the board of examiners of architects of the Board of Architecture of the Professional Regulation Commission said that "for the past 50 years, there has been a special law governing the preparation, signing and sealing of architectural documents and limiting such acts only to Registered and Licensed Architects. This is found basically in RA 545 of 1950, later modified by RA 1582 of 1956 and finally by RA 9266 of 2004."

It is clear, Pimentel said, that the court injunction relied upon by the engineers objecting to Republic Act 9266 did not refer at all nor does it apply to RA 9266, and its implementing rules and regulations and derivative regulations.

"This is the first time in my experience as a lawyer that some individuals who should know better are foisting upon the people the untenable proposition that implementing rules supersede the provisions of the law that the rules are supposed to implement. That cannot be and should not be," he said.

Moreover, Pimentel said some members of PICE who are blocking implementation of the new Architecture Act appear to be acting in evident bad faith since the PICE was a party to the crafting of this law, as borne out by the congressional records. He said that only a few leaders of the PICE were actively resisting the full implementation of the law.

He suggested a wider definition of the profession of architecture to include the design of the total building environment from the macro-level of town planning and urban design to the micro-level of construction details.

"I would like to see the Filipino spirit captured in structures of steel and wood when out architects do urban planning or landscape architecture," the senator from Mindanao said.

He raised this question: "In the construction of public buildings and facilities - whether built by the national or local government - may the people not expect that these edifices bear the brand of the Filipino?"

"If the Iglesia ni Cristo can mandate that its churches bear the distinct characteristics that identify them as INC temples, why can't the government - national and local-insists that its buildings be built in a manner that somehow carry the mark that these are public facilities constructed by the Filipino, of the Filipino and principally for the Filipino?"

Pimentel added that the Filipinos really want to see structures that would be identifiably Filipino, of world-class standards, and of which they will be proud of.

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