NAGA CITY — An engineer whose application for building permit has been rejected is set to file a contempt case against city building officials, asserting that an injunction is still enforced on the revised implementing rules and regulation (IRR) of PD 1096 or the new Building Code IRR that prohibits engineers from signing and sealing architectural documents.

        Santy said Aguilar denied him a written notice of his rejection when he demanded from the building official that he be given proper documentation of his decision.

        The Bicol Mail failed to get the side of Aguilar on Wednesday afternoon. An employee of the city engineer’s office said the building official was on field work and that most often he would just report the following day when he did field work past 3:30 in the afternoon.

        Showing a cell phone mpeg file, Santy said that the members of the United Architects of the Philippines in Naga City had been intimidating for the past days with several of its members hanging around the office of Aguilar to monitor on the building permit applications that passed through.

        He claimed that the UAP members tasked to monitor the applications for building permits would always raise warning that once application for building permits signed and sealed by engineers pass through approval they will document it for a future case regarding violation of the Architecture Act of 2004 or RA 9266.

        RA 9266 which has been the basis of revision of the IRR of PD 1096 has ribbed the sensitivities of the PICE because of the provision that delineates and prohibits engineers from signing and sealing architectural documents, which effectively prevents them from submitting construction plans without the signature of an architect.

        The PICE has obtained an injunction from the Regional Trial Court Branch 22 in Manila that effectively lay down a basis for the suspension of the enforcement of the revised IRR of PD 1096.

        In a published public statement, the PICE made a position that “civil engineers continue lawfully to prepare, sign and seal building plans, designs and specifications and submit them to the Office of the Building officials for securing a building permit.”

        In a press conference here regarding the issue of the apparent opposition of the PICE to the full enforcement of RA 9266, Robert SAC, the past president of UAP who lobbied to Pimentel its passage, declared they are ready to file in court violators of the architecture law.

        But Pimentel cautioned the UAP to avoid “head-on collision” and instead request for a dialogue with the PICE under the auspices of PRC to put to rest the issue.

        He said that the Department of Justice has already given their opinion that architectural works belong to the architects and the engineering works, to the engineers.

        Lawyer Pio Martin Gerardo Borja, legal counsel of UAP Camarines Sur Chapter, contended that the court injunction the PICE obtained from the court is a different matter to be resolved because the IRR it questioned did not prevent the enforcement of RA 9266.

        Sen. Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel has called on the Professional Regulatory Commission (PRC) to decide on the row between engineers and architects that heats up over the prohibition, of The Architecture Law of 2004 or RA 9266, to the former to prepare, sign and seal architectural documents.

        Pimentel has called on the PRC’s participation in resolving the professional row between the nationwide organizations of Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers (PICE) and United Architects of the Philippines (UAP) by giving its categorical position regarding the enforcement of the RA 9266.

        The main author of RA 9266, Pimentel Friday told the local media here that the architecture law is continuously enforced since its approval and the publication of the IRR in the Official Gazette in 2004.

        The RA 9266 has clipped the authority of civil engineers to sign and seal architectural documents that has been allowed by previous law (RA 545) and confined them to sign and seal structural documents of buildings and structures to be constructed.

        The structural documents include foundation plan, schedule of beams, roof framing among other structural concerns while the architectural documents include floor plans, elevations, perspective and interior and exterior details.

        Opposing the enforcement of the provision of the RA 9266 that delineated the roles of architects and engineers in the construction of buildings and structures, the PICE has filed and was issued on May 22, 2005 by the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 22, Manila, a writ of preliminary injunction regarding the enforcement of the revised IRR of the National Building Code (PD 1096),

        The revised IRR of PD 1096 has adopted the delineation of functions of architects and engineers pursuant to the enforcement of RA 9266.

        The UAP’s advocacy work on local government units (LGUs) in Bicol to adopt the IRR of RA 9266 has so far resulted in its full enforcement in the provinces of Albay, Camarines Sur and Sorsogon.

        Arch. Winstoney Salceda, president of the UAP chapter in Camarines Sur, said the enforcement of the RA 9266 has long been overdue so that they are focusing on a coordinated campaign nationwide to get LGUs’ formal adoption into an ordinance of the IRR of the architecture law through the provincial board and the city and town councils.

        But Salceda said they are facing difficulty getting the nod of the Naga City LGU to adopt the full enforcement of the RA 9266. Naga City is a chartered city in Camarines Sur province.