THE PHILIPPINE Supreme Court (SC), in a decision issued by the SC Second Division on March 15 and released on Nov. 9, ruled that only licensed architects, not civil engineers, can prepare, sign, and seal architectural documents.
This ruling overturns a Court of Appeals (CA) decision that questioned certain rules in Presidential Decree No. 1096, the National Building Code.
The SC said that the decision “cannot be considered to have any legal effect nor part of the National Building Code,” because the Code, as published in the Official Gazette, did not mention that civil engineers may sign architectural plans in the first place. Moreover, the SC ruled that the Architecture Act of 2002 impliedly repealed provisions in the Civil Engineering Law of 1950 which authorized civil engineers to prepare, sign, and seal various plans, including architectural documents.
“The repeal of a statute is a matter of legislative intent…The language of [the Architecture Act] reveals an intention on the part of the legislature to provide for a limitation on the civil engineers’ authority to prepare, sign, and seal documents relating to building construction,” said the High Tribunal.
In the same ruling, the SC upheld that only registered and licensed architects, or interior designers, may prepare, sign, and seal the architectural interior or interior design documents.
The ruling was made after Leo Cleto Gamolo and the Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers, Inc. filed a petition for declaratory relief before the Regional Trial Court (RTC) to authorize civil engineers to sign architectural documents.
The RTC denied the petition on Jan. 29, 2008, but was overturned by the CA on Jan. 5, 2012. — Jomel R. Paguian
