Edzel B. Briones
2009-34094
Che 185 Assignment
January 6, 2014
Comprehensive Differentiation of Republic Act No. 9297 to its
Implementing Rules and Regulations
We can say that a law is just a legal variation of rules but a more
complicated one and must pass through long and tedious due process, a
series of researching, drafting, checking, voting in order to take effect. It is
a legislated piece of information that is used by a state or country in
fulfilment of rights and freedom of its citizens. All levels of the government
must operate within the law and go through fair procedures. The practice of
Chemical Engineering here in the Philippines is of no exception and during
Quirino administration, on June 19, 1948, Republic Act No. 318 also known
as Chemical Engineering Law was approved to regulate the practice of
chemical engineering in the Philippines and for other purposes. This law was
later repealed by the twelfth congress and later approved as Republic Act no.
9297 or also known as “Chemical Engineering Law of 2004” on May 13, 2004
by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as stated in the Article V, section 38 of
the said republic act. This republic act declares the policy of the State to
supervise and regulate the practice of chemical engineering vital to national
development, upgrade chemical engineering education in order to ensure
that our chemical engineers are at par with the best in the world, and to
reserve the practice of such profession to Filipino citizens. This act shall not
be also construed to affect or prevent the practice of any other lawfully
recognized profession.
It is also important that the implementation of the law was carried out
accordingly otherwise it will be rendered useless. So on January 26, 2005, in
Pursuant to Section 6 (h) and (i), Article II and Section 36, Article V of
Republic Act No. 9297, the Professional Regulatory Board of Chemical
Engineering with the approval of the Professional Regulations Commission,
adopt and promulgates the Implementing Laws and Regulations of Republic
Act No. 9297.
The IRR of RA 9297 shall be interpreted, construed and
carried out in the light of the Statement of Policy of RA 9297. This means
that the rules set by the board on the IRR of RA 9297 should always be in
accordance to the republic act.
Even though the IRR of RA 9297 should always made reference to RA
9297 and in no way should contradict the said republic act, there are still
minor differences to the two documents. As you can notice, the Section 6
(p), Article 2 of RA 9297, (prosecute or institute criminal action against any
violator of this Act and/or rules and regulations of the Board) has an and/or
statement clearly stating that the republic act and the IRR are two different
sets of legal documents and you can violate only one or both of them.
The first thing we should establish in differentiating these two legal
documents is that RA 9297 is a LAW and the IRR of RA 9297 is a set of
RULES so that RA 9297 could be implemented. The RA 9297 is signed by the
President of the Republic of the Philippines while the IRR is signed by the
board who made it and attested by PRC. The RA 9297 goes through a longer
process than the IRR but because the IRR is only set by fewer people it is
more flexible and more easily be adjusted as the need arises. An example of
this advantage is that if in RA 318, the cost of examination fee that is only
30 pesos is not stated on the republic act but only on the IRR, an amend due
to monetary inflation could easily be done. (But for the record, the exact
amount of the examination fees and registration fees is not stated on both
RA 9297 and its IRR to prevent this error). All the power of the IRR comes
from the RA 9297. The relationship of RA 9297 on its IRR could be compared
to the relationship of God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son. Due to
inability of humans to understand all the glory and perfection of God, a
Messiah and only His begotten Son was sent here to earth so we can
understand more the kingdom of God in heaven. We could also say that the
RA 9297 answers more to the question WHAT is the policy and its IRR
answers HOW will the policy be carried out.
The practice of chemical engineering in the Philippines started during
the American era as the United States government introduces us to more
industries including the ones related to chemical processing. During 1921,
under Public Act No. 2985, the Board of Examiners for Chemical Engineers
was placed under the Secretary of Commerce and Communications and on
1948 the passage of RA 318 led to the creation of a new Board of Examiners
for Chemical Engineers. The law empowered the Department of Public Works
and Communications Secretary to appoint a three-man body that would
administer the Board’s functions and operations. It also defined the
regulatory powers of the Board on the conduct of licensure examinations and
issuance of Certificate of Registration. The Board shall exercise the powers
conferred upon it by this Act, shall from time to time look into the conditions
affecting the practice of chemical engineering in the Philippines, and
whenever necessary, recommend to the Secretary of Public Works and
Communications the adoption of such measures as may be deemed proper
for the vigorous enforcement of this Act. The creation of the professional
regulatory board for chemical engineers was also discussed on RA 9297 and
supporting details was added on its IRR. The composition of the Board, its
Power and Duties, the qualifications of the Board Chairman and members,
terms of office, removal/suspension of the chairman and members,
compensation of the board and annual report are both stated in the act and
its IRR. Even though that these parts are similar on what the message they
convey, the sentences on RA 9297 starts with “There shall be…” and “The
Board shall have…” while on its IRR it starts with “RA 9297 mandates…” and
“The powers of the Board are as defined by RA 9297…”, meaning that the
republic act is stating the things that the boards should do while the IRR also
state these things but in a way that because it is also defined on the republic
act. The IRR also follows other pertinent laws other than RA 9297 as seen on
Section 9, Rule 2. On this section it mentions that the compensation or
honorarium received by the chairman and members of the board is also
covered by other pertinent laws such as General Appropriations Act and not
just rules and regulations of the Philippine Regulation Commission. The IRR
also clears out things that are not stated in the republic act like the custody
of all the records of the Board. The IRR states that the Professional
Regulations Commission should hold these records and they should also
provide the secretariat and other support services to implement the
provisions of RA 9297. Even this part is not mention on RA 9297, but it is
mentioned on the Powers, Functions and Responsibilities of the Commission
stated on Section 7 (f) of RA 8981 or PRC Modernization Act of 2000. The
role of the commission was also discussed on the IRR but not on the republic
act. Section 11 of the IRR of RA 9297 states that the powers, functions and
responsibilities of the Commission relative to its administrative control and
supervision of the Board are as defined in the IRR of RA 8981 in a way that
shall not diminish the regulatory powers, functions and responsibilities
granted to the Board of Chemical Engineering to promulgate professional,
occupational and ethical standards as well as to administer, implement and
enforce the provisions of RA 9297. This part of the IRR explains that RA
8981 should not weaken the power given by the RA 9297 to the Board. This
important things are not mentioned on RA 9297 which proves a point that
IRR of republic acts are very important. The seal of the Board that was
mentioned on the act was also given a more detailed description on the IRR
and the importance of each symbols was also mentioned. As we can see on
this paragraph, if you are the RA 9297 and then IRR is like the love of your
life, because it gives colours and more details to your incomplete and dull
life.
Honest and credible licensure examinations are important tools of the
nation to determine the competence of its professionals. The Chemical
Engineering Profession is one of the many professions that require its
professionals to take a Licensure Examination and for a reason not just to
ensure competence of the applicants but also to ensure the quality of the
learning institutions that have a chemical engineering program. The Article 3
of the RA 9297 talks about the Licensure Examination and Registration. The
examination requirement, holding of examination, scope of examination,
qualifications for examinations, examination fees, report of rating, issuance
of certificate of registration and Professional Identification Card, seal of
registered
chemical
engineer,
fees
for
registration,
exemption
from
registration, suspension or revocation of certificate of registration and
certificate of compliance, reissuance of revoked certificate of registration or
certificate of compliance and replacement of lost certificates are stated in the
Article 3 of the act as well as also on its IRR. Even though the act and its
IRR is almost similar on this point again, there are few additions you can
spotted on the IRR. One of the examples is in the section 16, rule 3 of the
IRR. On section 16 (c), Article 3, the RA 9297 clearly states that the
educational
institution
of
the
applicant
must
be
recognized
by
the
government which includes schools in the Philippines that are accredited by
the Commission on Higher Education. This creates a problem for Filipino
citizens that studied abroad because our government doesn’t control the
quality of these institutions. The IRR provides a solution by requiring that
applicant to submit an endorsement from the Commission on Higher
Education. Even not stated on the act per se, the action is still legal and
absolutely follows the law. The IRR also states the forms necessary needed
for the application, something that is important but not stated again in the
republic act. Aside from holding the examination, the IRR also requires the
board to publish the date, time and venue of the licensure in the newspaper
or any broadcast media as long as it is practicable. This statement in section
19, rule 3 of the IRR is not required by the RA 9297 but doing this will be
beneficial to the applicants. You can see that a lot of added statements in
the IRR are meant to solve problems that may arise from the republic act
and this shows the practicality of implementing these rules. Another
examples of this is the issuance of the examination program and program
syllabi. The possible reasons that this things are not included in the republic
act is because this details are probably already too specific or maybe so that
amendments on this things can be easily made from time to time. Another
specific detail added to the IRR is adding the corresponding relative weight
percentage to the subjects but still follows what is set in the RA. The act
requires that subjects from Chemical Engineering should take not less that
40 per centum of the exam so on the IRR is set to 40% and the physical and
chemical principles and the general engineering subjects are both given 30%
with a total of 100%.
You can also notice that two documents states
differently in regarding if an examinee obtained a general average of no less
than seventy per centum (70%) and a rating of no less than fifty per centum
(50%) in any examination subject. Section 23, Rule 3 of the IRR states that
if given the situation above you will pass the licensure examination but on
the Section 19, Article 3 of RA 9297 it is stated that a Certificate of
Registration and Professional Identification Card can be issued to the
applicant and be entered in the Roster of Chemical Engineers by the
Commission. Even though these two statements on the two documents are
technically different, they only mean the same thing and does not
contradicts each other because all applicants for registration for the practice
of chemical engineering shall be required to pass the licensure examination
on the first place. This is one of the example of what I said earlier that even
though these two documents mean the same thing, they are stated
differently as with RA 9297 stated by the STATE and it’s IRR as stated by the
Board of Chemical Engineering.
Just like the previous articles, the Article 4 of RA 9297 is also stated in
its IRR. Additions that can be seen is a much detailed explanation on the
seal of chemical engineering as stated on Section 48, Rule 10 of the IRR.
This example once again proves that the IRR is the one used to apply the
republic act in real life scenarios and how to do it in practice. Another
practicality shown by the IRR is shown in the registration fees because what
stated in IRR is that the commission will only register the applicant only if
he/she is already paid but in the republic act it only states that the applicant
shall pay the fees prescribed by the commission. Another example of
statements that are practically the same but the statements on the IRR is
more practical. The IRR also explains the importance of registration of
foreigners that are allowed to practice chemical engineering here in the
Philippines and exempted for taking the exam and registration and that is for
the purpose of securing special permit to practice. Also regarding the
matters of foreign reciprocity the IRR describes what a foreigner should do if
he wishes to take our licensure exam.
The general provisions of RA 9297 are also stated in the IRR.
Moreover, additional rules are also added in the IRR like the teaching and
lecturing engagements in Chemical Engineering, Designs and Specifications
for Industrial Plants, Compliance of Industrial Plants and educational
Institutions, Code of Ethics and Continuing Professional Education and the
rule on the Adoption and Use of Seal by Chemical Engineers. This rules even
though are not stated per se on the act, are in much compliance and does
not contradict any statements in the act. This additional rules are meant to
guide the Board and the Chemical Engineers on the matters of the said titles
in practice and real life scenarios.