Architects told to get Asean certification

THE UNITEDArchitects of the Philippines (UAP) is encouraging its members to allow the Professional Regulation Commission to assess them so they could get certified and recognized as Asean architects and work in other Southeast Asian countries.

Arch. Benjamin K. Panganiban, fellow of UAP Kadayawan Davao Chapter, said yesterday in the weekly Club 888 forum at Marco Polo Davao Hotel that there are only 40 Asean architects, including him, in the country. There are three of them in Mindanao.

The PRC has encouraged all the architects to apply as long as they comply with the requirements, Panganiban said.

In Mindanao, Jaime B. Gonzaga, UAP District 1 director, said there are about 5,000 licensed architects that were registered under the association. He said some of them, however, were hesitant to apply as they needed to go to the head office of PRC and secure necessary documents.

Among the requirements include having five-year practice of the profession and providing designs on what they specialized. The registration fee is P5,000.

The PRC has to assess on what is the specialization of each applicant, Gonzaga said.

Panganiban said this is part of the government-to-government where the country can offer or tap services from other Southeast Asian countries in line on the implementation of Asean integration which would be in full swing starting next year.

The members of Asean has mutual recognition arrangement (MRA) on architectural services.

Based on the MRA, the objectives of this arrangement are to facilitate mobility of architects; to exchange information in order to promote adoption of best practices on standards of architectural education, professional practice and qualifications; to conform to the spirit of Asean co-operations based on fair distribution of resources and benefits through collaborative researches; and to encourage, facilitate and establish mutual recognition of architects and set up standards and commitment of technological transfer among Asean members.

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Architects told to get Asean certification