Government engineers have agreed that the best way to facilitate the release of building permits is to hand over the responsibility of ensuring structural safety to their professional counterparts hired by the building owners.
The move assures that building officials will now be able to concentrate on checking the completeness and integrity of the documents, plans, and blue prints submitted by the building permit applicants thoroughly.
Under this system, the role of the Professional Regulations Commission will be strengthened as it will now be able to crack the whip on erring and inept engineers.
Isagani Verzosa, chief of the Quezon City Office of the Building Official, said that the proposal gained positive response during his recent meeting with Department of Public Works and Highways officer-in-charge Undersecretary Rafael “Pye’’ Yabut.
During the meeting, DPWH engineers, mostly from Luzon, and the OBO agreed that the present building code crafted in 1970 should be amended to make it responsive to current times.
The late release of building permits without proper documentation and poor structural compliance have been a bane and misery for most of the building officials in the country.
Verzosa said that the system will allow only engineers with high standing and unquestionable integrity to practice their profession since the PRC will now be hanging by their coattails.
“The PRC will now be looking to discipline erring professionals. Some rogue engineers put their signatures on the plans and blueprints of building construction made by draftsmen without checking if they comply with the building code,’’ Verzosa said. (Chito A. Chavez)
